SCRW Vol2
by The-Tiger-and-The-Wolf
Summary: After the team recovered from the last battle in the valley, it is time to take a road trip to a for away town to investigate a series of disappearances but to lighten things up the circus is in town! How will SCRW far well in this whole new area, who knows?
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1- Truths and pancakes

"Salem?" Jet asked, sat in the main tent with Raven, the two of them sat around a wooden table and on a red carpet that sprawled throughout the room with a cup of tea for each of them resting on the table, Raven had pulled Jet away from his work to discuss something with him even though he had no intentions on talking with her but has no choice since he was "Rescued" by her so he has to listen to what she says, they had been in a conversation about the leader of the Grimm, Salem since Raven has a particular theory about her.

"Yes, to put it simply, the one who controls the Grimm." Raven took a sip of her tea and stared at Jet who had his hand on his chin, taking a moment to process that thought, then glared back at the bandit leader.

"Well I would've never expected the Grimm to have a leader until a certain recent incident but why should I believe you? Plus, what does this have to do with me? I'll just return to my hidey-hole if I think this is pointless." Jet clearly showing he doesn't want to be anywhere near Raven had more important things to be getting on with.

"I'll put it bluntly, she has an interest in your sister, I need to know what she could be after from her." As soon as Raven said those words, Jet instantly perked up to listen.

"Tell me… how bad could this be? And where is this "Salem" Person? Not to mention what does Sky have to do with this now?" Jet shot a glare, worried for what this sudden and mysterious name could do, now it being something he can't ignore.

"First of all, Salem can't be stopped, she will use anyone and any method to get what she wants, she's too powerful, we can't beat her."

"Then why doesn't the whole of Remnant know?"

"She's good at keeping herself a secret, plus if everyone knew, people would start to panic and when everyone panics or becomes afraid it attracts Grimm, no?"

The two sat in silence for a moment while Jet takes in the information and understands where she's coming from, thinking of the benefits if everyone doesn't know, meaning that people would be less worried and if everyone knew and began fearing Salem, it would only make the Grimm more powerful.

"But let me ask again, what does me and Sky have to do with her?"

"I believe Salem is gathering an army, not like the usual Grimm but using humans to act like a battery or power boost if you think about it, to be stronger, faster and smarter, just like how we as humans grow in strength, so does Salem and there's no telling about what she's about to throw at us next." Raven explained her theory, dragging her finger around her tea cup.

"So basically, like having an elite army using our souls to bring strength to the enemy?"

"Exactly, Salem must be targeting those who have a specific hate towards something that has a connection to humanity and to know that I need to know something you have a grudge or something you hate that would let Salem take advantage of to turn you over to her side."

Jet sat for a moment, going through the things that would fit that description and then it clicked.

"Alright, looks like I don't have a choice either way, basically we have a grudge against Atlas, mine is way stronger than hers for specific reasons that I am not prepared to go into, so it would make sense if this so-called Salem came for me but if she's gonna go Sky then I can only conclude that she can't find this hideout, correct?"

"Correct, I have chosen this particular area that makes it difficult for Salem to find us, I was planning in taking the both of you in, but it seems she managed to find you before we took action." Raven said with a glare, but Jet didn't feel threatened, instead it just brought up more questions.

"Then tell me, why did you attack us all those years ago to kill us?" Jet pressed the question with some heavy weight behind those words.

"At first I thought to kill you and make it quick but of course your defence was just too good for my men to handle, I know you can't forgive me for what you've done but I had to look at the situation and make a choice, whether let Salem gain more dangerous allies for her dangerous experiments or kill them beforehand or bring them to me." As soon as Raven said her piece, Jet slammed his fist on the table in a fit of rage, he found what she said ridiculous and couldn't just bear to listen.

"So, you just thought to kill us because it was convenient?! You never thought to try talk to us or convince us?! What the hell is wrong with you, if it wasn't for you, my mum and dad would still be here for the love of all! - ah" Jet yelled in anger, slamming his fist on the table once more, splintering the wood where his fist left a mark. he took deep breaths to calm himself down as now wasn't the time to get angry, he just needed to listen to her.

"I just had to let it out, as much as I hate you, you saved me, so I'll repay my debt."

"Smart boy, smarter than my own brother anyway." Raven cracked a smile while taking a sip from her tea.

"So, is that all you dragged me in for?"

"Not quite, how is the project I tasked you with coming along?" Raven asked expecting some good news.

"What you're asking for is not easy, you know that right?" Jet took a sip of his tea, frowning now that it went cold and left it on the table, Raven giving him a quick look of disappointment that Jet didn't even drink his tea.

"It's just a weapon to cut through aura, is that really so hard?" Raven said mockingly, pouring herself another cup, the reason why she had asked for such a thing was, so it would be easier to deal with any huntsman she or her tribe fights as well as it means that it will be easier for the others to kill huntsman themselves if need be.

"Right, well verdict is it's possible to damage the aura quicker if I charge lightning dust through a blade that will act like a catalyst to weaken the aura on impact as it will produce a small shockwave to disturb one's aura, you've got Vernal to thank for being a test subject though I don't feel like she's too happy about it."

"While making it easier to get their aura down is nice, what about destroying it or cutting through it?" Raven now pressing forward to hear what Jet has to say.

"I have a theory that if I can charge aura through a weapon instead and change its properties to act like a negative ion, it should slice through aura as the aura would naturally separate from each other, like putting two magnets of the same poles together although it won't damage the aura, only move it aside for a brief moment but I need to do some research into autonomy and molecular structures of Aura if possible." He had finished his report and sat back.

"If you're able to do that, that would be magnificent, but it will only work for those who have aura, correct?"

"Yes"

"I see… I will continue to provide you with research materials if it helps" Raven pondered to herself for a moment and then looked back at Jet.

"I have nothing else to tell you, you're dismissed."

"Alright." Jet stood up and turned his back on Raven without taking another look back as he went back out into the camp where he was confronted by a girl with very short hair and in a sleeveless jacket and burgundy jeans and some walking boots as she curiously looked up to Jet, it was Vernal, the "Test Subject".

"What did she have to say?" She asked curiously with a smile curling.

"Just the usual gotta do more." He sighed, walking past her without much attention.

"You better start showing results soon otherwise you'll just be excess baggage to the camp you know!"

"Yeah, I know, keep your pants on."

In a small hut Jet had constructed he sat on a sat down on a stool facing a makeshift bench filled with multiple wires, tools, nuts, leaves and scraps of metal along with a half-finished sword with a half a circle on the back of it, the room was quite messy but an organised kind of messy where Jet knew where everything was, he was just too lazy to tidy the place as he believes it will just get messy again so never bothered, he built several containers and boxes to store any components and anything he built in and a rain catcher outside so he can supply himself with water without needing to leave the hut when he is busy.

Ever since Jet had been kidnapped, he never got along with the bandits, he would always be at ends with them even when forced to come out on their raiding missions which he couldn't just leave as Raven would be able to use her portals to drag him back again, so he is forced to work for her, even more so after hearing about this so called "Salem" becoming a threat to them but how she used the word "Experiment" brought back painful memories to the inventor of being tested on, having things inject into him and being brought into surgery facilities in a plain but clean facility although he dismissed those thoughts, thinking they aren't important now although he has a crest of a unusual shape as if it was from an old tribe inscribed onto him.

He looked up wondering how Sky is doing right now, as long as she's having a good life at Beacon is what's important to him right now as he looked back down at his bench and thought to get to work again, dragging out plans for the second version for the Rail-Blade MKII and leaving the other plans that detailed the anti-aura blade, new gauntlets and support items, bombs, an anti-Grimm beacon and finally one more plan that was specifically top secret in a trunk, locking them up and getting to work on focusing on the Rail-Blade for now and then soon onto a high capacity wind turbine to provide extra power to his hut.

"There's a food fight!" Sky sprinted through the corridors dragging Ray along with her who looked like she really didn't want to get involved along with Wave and Claus running behind them where they were all in their usual Beacon uniforms straight from having class with Professor Mint, Sky used her semblance to move anything in her way to the side as she clearly didn't know how to slow down in her excitement.

"Sky! What's so important about them? We are just going to get dirty!" Ray yelled out loud, but Sky wouldn't listen as she burst through the doors to witness the glorious food fight before them with all the students running around throwing food and yelling out in their battle cries that encouraged Sky to join in as she rushed in, picking up pieces of bread and joining in the fun.

"We're gonna get into so much trouble…" Ray signed in disbelief even though she's more worried about a teacher coming in now.

The rest of the team stood in shock at the whole mess until a banana flew into Wave's face where he grabbed it and looked at it before noticing that it was Sky who did it to provoke them as she looked at them with a cheeky smile before running off.

"Ray… if you ever wanted to get revenge on Sky for the pranks she pulled this is the best time." He patted her shoulder before grabbing two baguette sticks and shot off to go fight his teammate.

"Not like I have a choice, Claus you're my bodyguard."

"Wait! I never agree-"

Ray ran ahead with some leeks and Claus followed on with a can of soda as the team went to confront Sky while dodging the mess of all the other student's food flying around.

Sky had flipped up several tables to use as shields while jumping between them, launching food at her team and hitting anyone else she can really with a couple of other students joining her in the onslaught.

This became a desperate fight to get each other as Wave was launching his baguettes at Sky but she kept doing a gymnastic style of dodging while mocking him while Claus was shaking the cans and throwing them like grenades and just when it seemed Sky had the advantage, Ray vaulted over one of the tables and aimed for Sky with the looks which were blocked by a large fish Sky had picked up as now the two were involved in a intense battle of speed as thrusted their…. "Weapons" At each other while flipping over each other and parrying each other's attacks.

"There's a leak in your defences!" Sky yelled out, Ray got caught off guard by the awful pun while she was clobbered in the face by the fish like a baseball and was launched to the other side of the room.

"Special move! Pun-cobbler!"

Sky yelled her victory cry but was now at the mercy of Wave and Claus when they charged in with their bread sticks forcing Sky to go into a defensive position with her fish to block their attacks until she was finally defeated after Ray threw a soda can and exploded between the 3 followed by several more cans being thrown into them with the other students being blasted away but throwing their breadsticks back at Ray in which she dodged them with elegancy.

"How do you like that?" Ray walked up to the group covered in pieces of food and yogurt and boasted.

"Not bad… not bad at all…" Sky praised her, slowing getting up and holding out her hand in respect although Ray refuses to take that hand cause simply, Sky's hands are just sticky from the soda.

Then all of a sudden, an orange splatters on Sky's head, dying half of her hair orange as she looks behind herself to see a girl with bright orange hair and a love heart on her white shirt, wearing a pink skirt as she giggled and ran away.

"Right… let's get her." Sky looked unamused, picking up her large fish and holding it like a baseball bat.

"Wave"

"Got it"

Wave picked up whatever fruit he could and started pitching them to Sky where she batted them like in a game of baseball at the cheeky girl as she just jumped around laughing out loud while it seems her teammates started stacking the tables and chairs into a large pile, dwarfing the team.

"I'm the queen of the castle, I'm queen of the castle!" She cried out in her overconfidence but just as Wave was about to launch a watermelon at Sky to bat…

"Glynda is on her way!" A male student with scarlet red medium length hair shouted as some of the students ran out of the dining hall to not get punished.

"Oh, crap we need to go team!" Sky shot up and yelled before dashing out of the dining hall, throwing the fish away and picking up any food she thought was edible still to eat later on.

"Don't leave us for dead, I'm too young to die!" Ray ran after her but was picked up by Wave as he could run faster and Claus following behind as the team exited the building like their lives depended on it as they just made out Glynda walking out from one building to the dining hall, praying that the rest of the students survive her punishments.

Back in the dorm the team was stood around panting, catching their breaths from their long long run to safety.

"Dammit Sky… first you drag up to the dining hall like that and next you almost get us into serious trouble, what's gotten into you?" Wave was the first to ask, sitting on the floor and letting out an exhausted sigh.

"Well ever since I got out of the hospital things have been boring and nothing much has been going on, so I wanted some excitement you know? To relax a little." She said, falling onto her bed and kicking her legs out in the air but realising how sticky she is from the fight, so she picks up a towel and her usual clothes.

"I'm going to take a sho-" Sky was about to say but Ray gripped onto her shoulders with a lot of force put into it and glared in her face.

"No, you're the one who started this, I think I need the shower the most here." She said half threateningly while taking a fish scale out of her hair.

"But aren't the shower rooms shared here?" Wave pointed out to the girls and they just look at each other before Ray goes to get a towel and a shower bag plus a shower cap as she looked at Sky and looked towards the door.

"Let's go."

Sky nodded and turned to the guys.

"Aren't you going to shower?"

"We didn't really get much on us, so we'll wait till the evening, the shower rooms are sure to be full by now for us." Wave said, and Claus agreed with him.

"Plus, we've got to go over our notes anyway." Claus added.

"Well have it your way, hey Ray come with me to get some strawberry soda after, I think they got a new shipment of my favourite brand in today."

"Only if you're paying."

The two approach the door and Ray opens it but to their surprise, Professor Mint is stood on the other side looking like a storm is about to come down on them.

"So… care to tell me where you ran off to Ms. Boltwight?" She asked in a silent rage, this caught the two out by surprise, they quickly looked back to the guys for help, but they already ran to hide from what is about to happen as now Sky was in the hot seat.

"Well you see… we were hungry and-"

"You went to the dining hall correct?"

"Yes."

"And what was you doing in that dining hall?"

"Just eating you know, I heard it was strawberry cheesecake day for desert." Sky attempted to make it sound like everything went as normal as possible to hopefully avoid any trouble, Ray was making full use of her right to remain silent.

"Not throwing I assume?" Mint peered closer into Sky's eyes, only making her more nervous.

"Of course, not…" Sky cracked an awkward smile, feeling like she's gonna break at any point.

"The CCTV says different as among the ruckus that was happening, you seemed to have taken part in that fight, even if it was for a short time, it was clear since you're the only one with ridiculous hair like that."

Sky gulped, sweating from her sheer amount of nervousness and the fact she got busted.

"Uhhh…hehe…ha…ha" She couldn't muster the thought of any words to say.

"I'm sorry."

"You're suspended and your teammate here for 3 days, take that time to reflect on your actions, the rest of your team will take notes for you and you must catch up on everything along with handing in an apology letter, homework and all." Mint forced some homework papers onto Sky and marched on to go punish the next set of students, Sky collapsed to her knees and let out the biggest whine she could.

"Suspended? Oh no, Jet's gonna be so mad at me if he finds out about this." She whined with worry looking at the stack of paper she received, especially when her hands were covered in fish and other fruits earlier.

"If people find out about this my reputation will be ruined, you better take responsibility Sky!" Ray complained at her with a slight tear to her eyes.

"Wow… I didn't expect that from our lovable teacher." Claus came out from hiding followed by Wave, Sky ran over to him and tugged onto his shirt as she looked up him half crying.

"What should I do? I can't just sit around for these days; the hospital was boring enough and if my brother knows that I got suspended like this he will make a fool of me while being mad of me." The poor girl cried out, Wave couldn't do anything but stand there dumbfounded by this reaction, this was the last thing he'd expect to see from the proud and joyous team leader he knew.

"Sky just go for your shower, make it a long one so you can calm down…please." Claus suggested to her and Ray proceeded to drag the crying leader up, handing over the papers to the boys.

"Come on, let's cry all about it when we are not in front of everyone, plus we might see that girl again from earlier, so we can get back at her." She said, giving a sharp glare while also tearing up, being just as upset about it as Sky was but can actually hold it back.

"O-okay…" Sky sniffed, giving the sheets to Wave and picking up the shower and her own wash bag before following Ray out of the room, leaving the two guys in the room.

"Wave… let's-"

"Don't even think about it."

Claus' hopes and dreams shattered before he could even finish what he was gonna say.

In the shower room, along with other girls presumably from the food fight, it was rather quiet, so they probably also got caught by the professors and are all in low spirits, Sky was washing Ray's hair while taking out any fish scales that might be in her hair and well she kind of owed the Idol wannabe after that whole mess.

"Make sure it's all out."

"Yeah, yeah."

Sky was annoyed with the homework she got even though she did deserve it, now finishing with Ray's hair, she turned to doing her own, taking some shampoo out of her bottle and applied it into her hair while she stood under the shower but before she turned on the shower head, the engineer thought to lift her spirits and be mischievous.

She dragged her finger down the middle Ray's exposed back, causing the Idol to yelp and wriggle away onto the floor, looking up at Sky in a curled-up position with her face gone red.

"What was that for?!" She yelled, standing up again, her expression turning from a vulnerable girl to a strong, angry one.

"I felt like we were letting this get to us, so I thought to brighten the mood you know?" Sky smiled, feeling satisfied with Ray's satisfaction, she continued to shower down Ray's hair till she was satisfied with the results.

"Who was that girl anyway from earlier? It was like she took over that whole scene in an instant." Ray asked, now brushing her hair, finding one last fish scale and gave Sky a quick glare but continued with her brushing.

"Her name was Nora, she's in that team with Pyrrha, the popular student here with her amazing fighting skills even though I'm more interested in her weaponry." She said, like she purposely studied about the team.

"And what about the guys?"

"Dunno, one is quiet but looks great to get along with while the other is uh… how should I put it."

"Weak?"

"That's it!"

The girls giggled, Sky started on the conditioner, applying it to her head and letting it absorb into her hair as she scrubbed her body.

"You were talking about Jaune, right?" A figure with long red hair approached them, it was Pyrrha.

The two spun around looking at her in surprise, now it was the case of who was the first to speak.

"But he will improve, won't he?" Sky said, trying not to sound like she's downgrading her teammate.

"He will with training and while he spends time at this academy, I just want to say it would be nice if you kept your comments to yourselves." Pyrrha said her piece and moved on to an empty shower head.

"Welp… we are getting told off left right and centre here, especially by other students." Ray sighed as she grabbed her towel and wrapped herself in it.

"But she's right, with all of us taking training at this academy, we will all improve, it's not bad being weak in the beginning, it just means you have the biggest potential to grow." The engineer said, finishing off washing her hair, turning off the showerhead and grabbing her towel and wrapping it around her, taking a look over to Pyrrha to notice a small smile from her which indicates that she was listening, the two swiftly turned away and just got up and left.

 **Woo! SCRW is back and with much longer chapters and this time starting with an actual arc, I'm so excited to share this and I hope you all enjoyed reading it too! stay tuned for next week as that's when the main plot begins.**


	2. Chapter 2- Mission Assignment

Chapter 2- Mission assignment

A few days has passed since Sky and Ray had been suspended in which Wave and Claus had to cover for them by making extra notes and catching them up on what they had missed from the classes they missed in which the work just kept piling for them as the team had to finish their homework before they were assigned their missions for their second semester.

It was morning and Sky was asleep on her desk, cleared from her usual clutter of objects and tools and were instead replaced by papers, an alarm clock and a desk lamp along with a couple of cans of drinks and sweets that were meant to help her stay awake but clearly didn't, she had a model of a bird she built from random sticks she found outside that she assembled to act as motivation for her study but clearly didn't motivate her enough.

The alarm clock rang, Sky sprung up from her position lightning fast and slammed her hand down on the clock to stop it's ringing.

"I'm on time!" She subconsciously shouted out, forcing the rest of the team up with a jolt with their grumbles and annoyed faces.

"Sky, why are you shouting? It's early…" Ray complained as she rubbed her head, taking a stretch and yawned.

Sky pondered to herself for a moment and concluded.

"I guess, I had a dream about being late to a place I was working at."

"Seriously?"

"Ahehehe…" Sky sighed slightly, and Ray came over to look at her papers while still in her purple pyjamas, judging the engineer for she didn't complete as much as the Idol did.

"It took you all night to do this?" She questions.

"I'm not as smart as you in some fields okay?"

"Well that's to be expected"

"Don't rub it in." Sky scoffed and rested back on her desk, she felt exhausted from staying up all night doing the homework but not only that, she had to make a new weapon since her last one was destroyed by that mysterious Grimm and all she had back with her is one of the bone blades that were recovered from the Grimm that professor Oobleck had a study of it before returning it half the size as before, they took a chunk to be sent off to be analysed while Sky was given the blade that was of a much more manageable size to work with to become her new weapon.

"Hey Sky, how long is it till class?" Wave asked, brushing his hair with a miniature comb while sat on his bed.

"About an hour till class but more importantly, Sky what are you going to do about a weapon? Today is the day we choose missions to go on." Claus answered instead and reminded the team about the mission selections they have to take.

"I've got the plans for it, it's just a case of assembling it together really but just in case, I've got a spare knife." The exhausted engineer sighed and brought out a large roll of paper from underneath the desk and cleared some space on the desk to unroll the paper across it, Ray had a quick look over it and quickly gave a worried look to Sky.

"A-are you serious?"

"Yeah, while I will be able to put some of it together with my semblance, a lot of welding and connections will have to be done so guys choose a mission with preferably a long travel time, so I can finish it off on the way there if need be, it won't be perfect but it will be something." Sky said, standing up and walking over to the Grimm blade and strokes it with a smile on her face before mumbling to herself, amusing herself with the amount of combinations she could do.

"I'll get back at you one day."

After classes, team SCRW were in the selection halls to choose which mission to go on the next day where there were multiple teams around doing the same with along with Pyrrha's team there in which Ray got startled when she saw them but they didn't seem to notice, Sky had to have made her weapon by the time she went on the mission, so she brought a large case that's strapped to her back with the Grimm blade strapped onto the back of the case too.

The team went up to one of the boards to select a mission, Wave stepped up to scroll through each mission before stopping at one that detailed to be a rescue mission.

"I don't think we should do one like that yet, we would be likely to run into a lot of Grimm." Ray stated, looking over at Sky who just glanced away shyly.

"Sorry…"

"You don't need to apologise, we can't go on that one anyway." Claus stated to help make her feel better in which Sky just faced the group again as Wave scrolled through the list again.

"Let's look for one where there wouldn't have too much Grimm." Wave said as he stopped at another mission detailing a mystery in a village where a team of Huntsman are required.

"The distance seems to be enough for me." Sky stepped up to the screen to take a closer look with curiosity.

"A mystery though? Isn't that boring?" Claus stated, showing his obvious boredom.

"It's something we are gonna have to do ourselves at one point, hey you might enjoy it so with that as leader, I declare we are choosing that mission!" Sky said with a cheeky smile to her face as pushed past Wave and clicked the screen to accept the mission.

"Wait, you didn't ask me!" Ray said, trying not to shout too loud in consideration for Wave for she doesn't know if he is getting better or not.

"Ray it's fine, I'm think I'm kinda of getting used to the shouting now…" Wave scratched his head and let out a small chuckle.

"Well… I'll still try to be considerate… I've realised I can't go shouting at everyone, that brings a bad image upon me as an Idol afterall." Ray gives a slight blush as she turns away from Wave, the Faunus just looks confused while Sky snickers.

"I guess you're learning this time." She comments with a smile, Ray shoots back a glare for a moment and then turned back to the mission board.

"So, we're taking this mission?"

"Yup." Sky nods with a smile, pressing a button on the screen to accept the mission and was soon given confirmation with their departure time being not till tomorrow for the airship that will take them there will need to complete some stops for other teams before picking SCRW up for theirs is long journey.

"Well with that, I guess we've got the day off." Claus said, swinging his arms over his head and looking up as if he's bored.

"Well YOU guys have the day off, I've got a lot of work to do today…" Sky sighed, regretting the amount of work she put herself in for the day before dragging herself away from the group to return to the room, contemplating just bringing the knife at this point.

"Shouldn't we go help her?" Wave asked out of concern.

"Unless you're good with machines and mechanics, we are more likely to create more work for her." Ray said, turning away to where the library is. "I'm off to do some reading, follow if you must, if not do whatever."

As Ray walks off, Wave and Claus look from behind and sigh simultaneously.

"How do we handle these girls?" Claus asked, scratching the side of his head.

"I don't know, I was never good at it."

"I bet a team full of girls or boys would be easier to deal with, like RWBY, right?" Claus said, looking over at said team where they were talking to Ozpin.

"They seem to get along with the headmaster a bit, don't they?" Wave bent down to Claus' ear and whispered.

"They could be teacher's pet for all I care, I'm hungry so follow me." Claus smiled slightly and walked off with Wave following closely behind.

It's early morning and the team is waiting outside the academy by a platform waiting for the airship to come pick them up, Wave was checking his weapon to make sure it was working fine, testing the wire, making sure the weapon folds in and out properly, then quickly making sure Sky hasn't put in any new arrows as she has a tendency of making new kinds of arrows for Wave to try out without telling him. It's her secret bag of tricks… with a potential that it could kill the wielder or the team.

Claus was checking in his camping bag to make sure he hadn't forgotten anything and hiding any snacks he brought underneath a spare shirt he stuffed in then proceeding to clamp his Tonfa's onto his back.

Ray gave out a large yawn for she stayed up too late in the library and was clearly growing impatient for the airship meanwhile with Sky… She had her new weapon with her but was still wielding and doing her final touches on it using a portable wielder she made awhile ago and had some wielding glasses on her to prevent her from being blinded by the sparks.

The weapon in question was in the form of a spear with a large slashing blade at one end from the Grimm blade and many parts and blocks forming the handle and shaft with the length seeming to just be as long as Ray with a circular handle in the middle of the weapon with two different triggers that indicate it might be a fire and transform button there though it looks like there's a larger button on the inside of the circle so who knows what the weapon does?

"Hey Sky, isn't this cutting it a little close?" Ray knelt but quickly jumped away at some incoming sparks.

"I will be done in a few minutes, hold on, I heard some teams had members go on missions without their weapons to it will be fiiiiiine." Sky said, focused on her work, bringing out more parts from her a hip pouch she was wearing and begins screwing them in.

"Ahh, so this is the team I'm supposed to be taking." A low, rough voice shot through the team as they, except Sky turned to see who it was.

A man with dark blue hair that looked like a tornado made it stand as it swirled up and outwards and he was wearing a dark blue suit with matching tie and a white shirt along with him holding a cane that looked more like a mace with it having 5 horns pointing up like a crown with a sparkling crystal in the centre where he placed his hand for walking with it as he stood before the team with both hands on his stick and pretty much was inspecting their worth with an unintentional threatening glare.

"So… you're our professor for the expedition?" Ray asked, gulping, unable to take her eyes off his ridiculous hair, she thought the professor must've been new cause she would've definitely remembered anyone with hair like that.

"Precisely, bare in mind we will be investigating since we don't know exact details so don't expect a fight so soon, but Grimm are ever present so if you get bored you can hunt some, any questions? I may be new and unfamiliar, but I will do my best to answer any questions" He said, his eyes wondering over to Sky who was still too busy with her weapon to say anything.

"You're already looking down on us, aren't you?" Ray took a step forward, her face scorning at the professor although he didn't care about what she thought, he was more interested in Sky.

"I don't mean to if that's how you feel but If you stick with me, I can teach you to help in the investigation until then, you're young and inexperienced so I will guide you." He said in a cold tone as he stepped over to Sky who was hunched over working on her weapon.

He went to strike at her with the cane to get her attention, but Sky moved like she expected it to strike her, grabbing the cane with one hand, shooting up as fast as she could with the wielder in her other hand as if she was going to strike, her eyes wide like a lion striking for her prey however…

The professor let go of his cane and in a sequence of a few seconds, slapped her wrist away from him and then proceeded with several blows to Sky's body in various areas but found himself unable to move with gold area surrounding him and noticed that Sky's eyes also turned golden, clearly indicating that Sky used her semblance to stop the professor before releasing him.

"Attacking your professors… You're gonna be more trouble than I thought."

"What's wrong with you? Isn't that the natural response if someone was going to attack you like that?" Sky huffed, her eyes returning to the usual sky blue and she looked away from him.

"First of all, called me Professor Gort, I will be the professor accompanying you throughout this mission so you're aware, I didn't want to start this negatively, but it seems with your attitude, I had no choice, although you did make a good poitn." He said, going to grab his cane but then takes a quick look on Sky's weapon.

"Last minute maintenance? How careless right before a mission."

"I don't know if you didn't know but a Grimm destroyed my last weapon recently, so I have to work with what I've got." Sky stood up and wiped her chin as she returns to her weapon but Professor Gort takes one of the parts she was going to use and inspects it for a moment before returning it, not even acting like he's aware of the bad impression he's put himself on the team already.

"There are some questions I'd like to ask about this but our transports here." As Gort said his line, the airship came above the landing platform and slowly made touch down.

"Before we go, may I get your names?"

"Wave Tinderfields"

"Claus Freed"

"Ray Golden-wind"

"Sky Boltwight"

The team said their names, Sky still glaring angrily at her new found enemy while Wave looked at him with caution for he doesn't know whether this new professor can be trusted or not, but he glanced over to Claus who nodded to reassure him.

"Alright, let's get a move on team, I'll be counting on you." Gort said, stepping onto the airship with the rest following and Claus helping Sky get the equipment onto the airship.

 **Alright from now on I'll be trying out a new genre and style to see how this goes and see if it is ready to read or not, for all those reading, if you can give any feedback or review they would be highly appreciated so I can improve in the future.**

 **Thank you for reading!**


	3. Chapter 3- The town of Bozu

Chapter 3- The town of Bosu

The whirring of the engines from the airship kicked up some dust as it slowly descended to drop off the team and their new professor.

The team jumped down with their weapons stowed away on their sides and Claus with his weapons on his back, even Sky managed to finish her weapon just before they got to the destination and now it was equipped to her hip by her hip pouch in the form of a tool box.

Gort finished up his conversation with the pilot before stepping down from the airship, planting his cane down first and then hopping down and now with everyone off, the airship slowly rose up and flew away to go pick up the next team.

"Now then, let's begin by securing our lodgings and exploring the town and get a familiar feel to it before we begin our work." Gort announced, glancing behind them at the town.

It wasn't a large town, the town of Bosu is a small town far from Vale with multiple rivers and streams on high land surrounding it including one that flows through the centre of the town, giving it some defence against small land based Grimm, there were several houses and taller buildings reaching four stories high with a main dirt road with some side roads being made apparent as the occasional vehicle pulls into them and an airship landing pad and they had some of the Vale security there positioned on towers and patrolling around the town to protect them due to a deal made between the town and Vale for exchanging shares and resources, it was the closest thing to the expansion of Vale.

"Hey professor I don't know if you've noticed but…" Claus pointed his finger to the right of him to show a large circus tent of a variety of colours to dazzle anyone looking at it.

"We are not here for fun, though it may be worth investigating later on." Gort said, his low practically able to rip through everyone body's it was that low and projecting.

"Professor I've got a question." Sky raised her hand with a serious face, she's still angry with him from the earlier confrontation.

"Speak… Sky isn't it? I apologise I am not the best with names."

"May we go hunting for Grimm? I need to do a test to make sure my weapon is functioning properly, you know since I literally just finished it on the way here." She said, taking out her weapon and unfolding it out to into the spear form with the blade almost poking Ray in which she stumbled back in surprise.

"Sky careful with that thing! You nearly poked me."

"Oh sorry, sorry." The engineer scratched her head but looked back at Gort for his answer.

"You sure are an eager one, here's a proposal-"

"P-proposal?!" Sky interrupted him, going red thinking his was going to propose to her until Ray slapped her on the head to get that thought out of her head, when to comes to anything romance or love related, Sky was always the one to react the most abruptly and with major misunderstandings since she barely experienced it in her life and was extremely weak to it was quick to react in misunderstandings due to the attention he got from O'Brian back at her home, well in Jet's eyes he saw it more as harassment to the point where Sky is just scared of any kind of romance since the guy never left her alone back then.

"Ahem, what I was saying, instead of going off to hunt Grimm and put yourself in danger, how about I test your weapon, this open space will be ideal for a duel plus it let's me know how capable you are in combat." As Gort said his piece, he took a few spaces away from the group and planted his cane into the ground, reached in his pocket and brought out some gentlemen leather gloves and put them on before lifting the cane again but this time holding it by the base as though to look like he intends to use it like a mace.

"You're fine with that?! Fine let's do this!" Sky took a step forward with a smile for this was a great opportunity to test her new weapon out for this is better and safer than going head first into a horde of Grimm.

"Wave was it? keep an eye on our aura, it should be on your scroll on the Beacon application." Gort said to him and Wave nodded then checked his scroll to find the aura levels of them both, he instantly knew that this wasn't going to go well.

"Just remember, you're representing your team as leader, after this we will continue with the tasks today, got it?" Gort stated.

"Of course, this will be a short fight anyway." Sky swung her spear in a few rotations before pointing it towards Gort, her arms spread along the weapon, leaning forward, ready for a quick thrust as she is waiting upon the professor to make the first move.

But Gort didn't move, instead he made a taunting gesture with his hand for Sky to rush at him, he also knew that whoever makes the first move can decide the fate of the match, it was a stalemate.

Sky nodded as she leaped from her position, sprinting at her professor, swinging her weapon behind her back as she halted right before him and brought the spear around for the first heavy strike,

Gort just stepped back and proceeded to block the next few consecutive strikes from the student, he narrowly dodged past the thrust to get in close while Sky still had the spear extended and proceeded to kick her in the stomach region, swinging his cane up, ready to swing down on her but Sky had other plans as she quickly recovered from the kick and rolled back and took a defensive stance with her lance across her body and holding it firmly, catching her breath from the confrontation.

Gort seemed to use his limbs to fight more than his actual weapon and doesn't seem to always go for the first strike, he was calculating and defensive like he knew every move Sky was going to make so during her thought process, she thought the only way to land a hit on him was a surprise strike but something was off, it was like he knew what she was going to do before Sky even acted so if she was going to do a surprise attack it would be too swift for him to even react, it was a perfect change to test the other feature of her weapon.

By taking a block out of the spear and replacing it with a black painted one, Sky rushed to Gort once again with her plan.

"Fruitless." The professor muttered under his breath as he took up arms to intercept.

The engineer did the same as last time by halting just before him but out of range of his weapon, but this time grabbed the circular handle of the spear and jerked it back, causing the whole thing to fold in half and forming a one-sided blade with a gun barrel at the centre in quick succession.

The professor's eyes widened and kicked back almost like he knew what she was doing as Sky pulled the trigger and a cloud of black smoke exploded from around Gort's face to where she was aiming although the cloud was only big enough to cover his whole head, Sky took this opportunity to get a few slashes in with the now sword but just as she was go into one more strike, the cane made its way to strike her in the stomach and from that, a fiery blast erupted from it, throwing Sky quite a distance from it as she yelped from the sudden impact and crashed on the floor.

"A very interesting weapon design, I'll admit there's something I want to ask." Gort wiped the smoke away from his face, leaving some smudges on his face, his cane had fire circling it from the dust crystal that was in the handle but soon went out as the professor planted it back into the ground and put his hand on top of the handle.

Before Sky answered she immediately rushed in with her sword for one last rush.

The two's weapons clashed for a few times, Sky dodging a few strikes, displaying her intuition to quick attacks and went for a low sweep with her leg, only to miss by Gort jumping up and kicking her in the face, delivering another heavy blow to Sky one again and sent her flying back into the dirt.

"Enough! Now will you listen to my question?" Gort planted his cane down to signal he was done.

Sky stood up and folded her weapon away, looking disappointed with herself.

"What is it?"

"The way you fight, it's for humans correct?"

The way he phrased it sent Sky into surprise as no one ever said that to her nor did she even think about it.

"Hold on, a fighting style just against humans? What do you mean?" Wave stood forward, putting his scroll away.

"What I mean is, she is more suited for fighting humans than Grimm, while it may not be a bad thing if you frequently encounter bandits but as a huntress you will encounter much more Grimm than bandits along with having too much strength can sometimes lead to hardships on both you and those around you, that's what I'm saying." Gort drew closer to Sky and held out his hand, while he seemed relieved, a part of him still looked sad.

"It was a good match."

"Heh… thanks." Sky took his hand and shook it.

"So, are you saying I'm unsuited for fighting Grimm?" She asked worriedly, looking down slightly like a guilty puppy.

"Not exactly, there have been a few examples of students like yourself and they have left to do fine or learned from experience, this was just something I had noticed." Gort drew back his hand and took off the gloves, slipping them into his pockets and focused back onto the girl.

"So why did you bring it up?" Sky looked up, feeling relived that she was not going to be scolded.

"I merely just wanted to state that, if it offended you then I apologise, I'm not used to teaching so I apologise if I come out as rude or harsh."

"It's okay, you were just curious that's all but when did you start teaching?" Sky smiled again, bringing her spirits back up knowing that her professor didn't mean anything bad by what he had said.

"I was at Haven academy for a year before transferring here."

"You're a bit insensitive, aren't you?" Ray smirked, crossing her arms.

"I would prefer it if you kept your comments to yourself." The professor said in a more threatening manner as he took some steps forward.

"Come on, we've got to check ourselves in."

After that, the team checked into a small lodge on the side of the main road of the town where they stored their luggage and came back out to tour the town to get a feeling for its surroundings, in the town, despite the news of people going missing in the area, it was quite busy people going around the different shops and stalls, kids running around and the occasional dog sniffing for it's perfect peeing spot.

It was different from Vale, it was busy but not as busy as what Vale would be on the busiest days, so it was a nice and different atmosphere which reminded Sky of the village back at home a little, Ray looked curiously at the shop windows, looking for any potential buys while Claus kept looking up at the buildings, seeming impressed by the architecture although it could be considered bland and plain to the common eye.

"Professor, don't mind me asking but doesn't this town seem a bit… defenceless?" Wave raised the question, looking around noticing there being little guards, not to mention no walls surrounding the while town which is quite uncommon for a settlement outside the kingdoms.

"This place is protected by the natural barriers, the rivers, hills and the wind, there isn't much need for walls since the Grimm tend to be in low numbers and not usually that large, so the guards here look from outpost's such as that one." Gort pointed up with his cane at a large tower with an observation shack.

"Although, security still feels quite thin around here."

"That's what I'm thinking, there should be more guards, good work I'll keep that in mind." Gort said, stopping the group in front of a bizarre sculpture about the professor's height as he turned to them.

"We will start the investigation from here, you all remember the mission brief right?"

"We must investigate the disappearance of people and if possible find them, right?" Ray answered, taking her scroll out to check the description.

"That's only part of it, that damn Oz…" Gort cursed under his breath, giving a cough before continuing.

"This place isn't the only place that's seen a series of people going missing in this area, as far as we know, every report that we had received is all the destinations that circus tent has been so we've been following it but every time we dispatched a team, the tent has moved apart from here, it seems to have a particular interest here in which we must investigate." Gort knew that the tent would ideally be the place to be investigate first but as to why it is staying in this particular position is what interested him so it's important to know the intent before confronting the culprit or culprits.

"So why are we investigating this? Isn't this normally a job for the Vale security." Ray asked, raising an eyebrow at the professor.

"As Huntsman and Huntresses, you won't only be fighting Grimm, sometimes you'll be on search and rescue missions or helping as investigators or escorts, a situation like this is ideal for getting students such as yourselves to learn, was that to your satisfaction?" Gort said, his stare looking like a glare from a thousand crows looking at their prey that intimidated Ray, but she didn't let it show.

"N-no." She squeaked.

"Either way we will break into teams for here, the reason for that is when we talk to individuals, if we go as part of a large team, it can be intimidating to them or if we find the suspect, they will be more likely to catch on that we are onto them." Gort picked up his cane and pointed at the students to split them in half.

"Ray with Wave and Sky with Claus, I'll go on my own, meet back here for 6pm, no later got it?" He said, placing the cane back on the floor.

"Sure, but what are we supposed to ask?" Wave asked, Gort was caught off guard slightly, realising he hadn't told them.

"Good question, I have a list of the missing persons from this area and the people they knew, I will assign a couple of them to you, show them your Beacon ID's when you talk to them so the people know they can trust you and be conservative when talking to them, listen and try to avoid questions that will hurt them, we will share the information we gathered later." Gort nodded and turned to take his leave up the street, like he was leaving the stage of a performance.

"Bossy and uptight but caring and kind, why is this guy so confusing?!" Ray let out her frustration, frantically scratching her head then stopping as soon as she calmed down but still looked frustrated.

"I don't blame you, I find him very hard to read like a book on soil." Claus put hand to chin and shook his head.

"But you can't read a human right?" Wave stated, not understanding the indirect metaphor.

"Oh silly, it's a saying, just meaning it's hard to understand what he was thinking." Sky teased the wolf Faunus, smiling up to him and giggling before turning away but stopped for a moment to think.

Although speaking of reading, Sky was wondering the whole time on how Gort predicted her moves in that earlier battle, even when she changed weapon forms for the small smoke-screen, the professor seemed to have noticed what was already going to happen but couldn't react in time, this made finding out his semblance an important matter.

Before Sky could think about it anymore, her scroll buzzed in her hip pouch with a message from the professor with a photo attached, it was time to get to work.


	4. Chapter 4- Have you ever heard?

Chapter 4- Have you ever heard?

In the market place, Ray crossed off the name "Ivan Machina" on her scroll and sighed as she and Wave slowly strolled down the street after their unsuccessful attempt to get any information or chased away.

"What was with that old guy? As soon as we mention his daughter he got all violent and started attacking us." Ray threw her hands up briefly as she complained.

"Well when you do lose a family member, you kind of lose your mind, I was like that once remember?" Wave reminded the Idol and she quickly understood.

"Ah- yeah… by the way, how are you feeling now? Is Anabelle getting better?"

"I got an examination along with her before I left, and the doctors said I was improving greatly and even Anabelle's health was improving now that we can have small conversations together, I just have to have regular visits with her really." Said Wave, he had been visiting his sister more often and sometimes would accompany her when she has her therapy in which the doctors now involve Wave in to help build their relationship.

Although this made Wave wonder why Ray brought it up suddenly especially since she seemed like the insensitive one back then, he concluded that Ray is trying to change her ways and is trying to be understanding.

"I that so? That's a relief, as a future Idol of Remnant, I guess I need to start understanding feelings of other people, so you are my help got it?" Ray said, pointing a finger at him but then getting side-tracked by a jewellery store and wondered to look at the shop window.

"So, I'm your guinea pig?" Wave forced a smile as he watched Ray looking at the jewellery.

The Idol turned away from the store and pouted, seeming annoyed at the statement.

"Sounds better to say you're supporting me, right? Like a back-up dancer, just help me to become better."

"That doesn't sound any better…plus I don't dance" Wave admitted, he doesn't feel confident in dancing but that wasn't the point.

"Really?! When we get back I should teach you someday." Ray was caught in surprise, she thought of Wave as one of the dancing types, she surely has to teach him one day.

"Anyway, back to that old man, there was something he said that bothered me." Wave put his hand to his chin as he looked up to the sky in thought.

"And that is?" Ray tilted her head slightly and put her hands on her hips.

Going through his head, the words Wave was thinking about is when the man shouted, "She is a puppet to no one" It sounds like she was tricked into going somewhere he thought and something he should bring up when everyone meets again.

"He said something abo-"

"Oh, it's you two, how's the investigation going?" Gort noticed the two and interrupted their conversation, now carrying his cane in his arm and eating a half-eaten bagel in the other hand.

"Professor! Where did you come from… and aren't you getting a bit lazy there?" Ray asked, glaring at the bagel like it's her mortal enemy.

"I'm being more productive than looking into a jewellery store don't you think?" Said Gort, taking another bite out of the bagel, making Ray erk to herself as she didn't know he saw that.

"Ahem- It's almost time we met up again by the statue, let's go and Let's get a bagel for Ray since she won't stop looking at it." Gort cracked a teasing smile as he turned his back on the two and walked on.

"Jeez! But you're paying!" Ray yelled frustratingly and stomped on ahead, Wave looking in surprise but quickly cleared his head and rushed on.

"They're late." Gort grumbled impatiently, tapping his foot and watching his pocket watch, Ray and Wave were stood at each side of the statue bored to the brim of waiting.

"Where the hell is Sky and Claus?! It's been 15 minutes!" Ray called out and Wave slumped to the floor.

"Don't worry, I'll give them a good talk once they get here." Gort said but as he said that he heard a voice ring through the air and he looked behind himself to see a figure carrying someone but upon closer inspection it was Sky carrying Claus on her back for some odd reason.

Just what kind of mischief did those two get themselves into?

"Guys! Sorry we're late." Sky shouted from the distance and as she drew closer to the group, she let Claus onto the ground where he was just sleeping but it wasn't easy to see with his sunglasses on.

"As you can see, we ran into a little trouble hehe…." The engineer scratched her head and made an apologetic face with a small smile but everyone else wasn't smiling.

"What the hell happened to the guy?!" Ray questioned Sky where she just stiffened up briefly and sighed.

"Basically the person we went to meet told us that there was a guy recently going around selling soothers and tealeaves that will dissolve in tea and was said to help with sleep and guarantee a good dream along with bath bombs, sweets and perfume, a lot of people bought one as buying them in a pack got half off the tickets to the circus so we were offered to try one but as I was about to try it, Claus took my drink and drank it instead." Sky crouched down and poked at Claus' cheek and there was no response, so she stood back up.

"And after like I think half an hour, he's been like this since, the guy apologised but gave us some weird smile as I left carrying this idiot, either way, that's how it all happened." She had finished her report and shrugged her shoulders.

"Well this is… unexpected but this does make the circus a suspect and we should get in contact with the owner soon." Gort said.

"We also got told that the daughter that went missing might have been tricked, we got kicked out said that "She is no puppet" So to say, pointing his finger at the circus tent." Wave said his input.

"Interesting indeed, let us return to the lodge, I'll have them make us food and pray that Claus wakes up in time, although from your descriptions it seems whoever is behind this mainly targeting females, that helps narrow things down but not by much." Gort said, poking the sleeping idiot with his cane like he is some rodent.

"Agreed." Ray said, poking Claus with the tip of her shoe.

"Are we seriously doing this?" Wave sighed at the two and joined in with the poking him softly with an arrow.

"Mmm… Who is that?" Claus grumbled as he slowly rose, the three poking him rapidly stopped and acted like nothing had happened.

"Oh, you're finally awake." Sky pouted. "idiot."

"You were about to drink it yourself!" Claus retaliated back, standing up and glare down at her.

"Did you have any sweet dreams?" Sky didn't even look him in the eye as she said.

"Well if it was about me walking a tightrope in front of a crowd in a circus then yes." He scoffed, turning the other way.

"I guess that makes the tent all the more worth investigating…" Gort facepalmed, questioning whether it was a good idea to go out with this team.

Back at the lodge, SCRW were sat in a large room with 4 bunk beds, a blue carpet in the middle and a desk, Sky was sat on the top bunk of one of the beds while Ray laid underneath, Wave was reading a book and Claus was well… looking out of the window.

When they got back, Gort told them to wait in their room while he sorted out the next task for the team but for tonight he was going to the circus in an attempt to find any clues regarding the disappearances and get any evidence so that the Vale security can act.

"I can't believe the guy, we know it was who did it, why is he going in alone?" Ray cried out into her pillow, kicking her legs in the air out of frustration.

"Well you can't arrest someone without any good evidence, sure the soothers, sweets, whatever is good evidence but if he manages to find anyone who was kidnapped and bring them back, then it's solved." Wave said, turning over a page.

"Then why didn't we go with him?"

"It's likely because he needed to be stealthy to not alert anyone working at the circus." Wave said again, turning over another page.

"Then… why did we even come then if we were to be put to the side like this?" Sky sighed, looking up at the ceiling with a sad expression for Sky hates feeling like she's just useless baggage.

"We should ask him when he gets back." Wave too wanted to know the truth, he and Ray were both frustrated that they didn't get to do much themselves.

Claus didn't react to their conversations, but his scroll buzzed, he looked up at a message from Gort, instructing him to meet him at a bar just a short walk away.

"Who was it?" Sky looked down curiously.

"Our professor, he just wants me to come over, only me." Claus said as he turned towards the door.

"Then ask him why the hell we are here, I can't take this!" Sky yelled, her annoyance showing through as she whined.

"You don't have to yell… but sure, if I don't like the answer I'll give him a piece of my mind for all of us." The mysterious guy said as he waved back with a smirk as he left the room, leaving everyone to sit in the room in silence.

"he sure is weird…" Ray says her opinion, in truth she never trusted Claus, she had always been suspicious of him ever since he joined the team.

"What makes you say that?" Sky hung over the bed with a curious look, just to then do a flip off the bed and sat on the floor in front of Ray, taking a deep breath to try calm down.

"It like, he's always got something else on his mind, he doesn't really pay attention to us apart from you, if you haven't noticed." As Ray said that, the thought struck the engineer as she mused over previous conversations where Claus hasn't been very interactive with the others yet gives her the full attention.

"As a leader, you need to pick up on this and talk with him, he's starting to creep me out." Ray said with a bossy look on her face.

"You don't have to tell me what to do but sure, I'll look into it."

Sky knows she will have to talk to him sooner or later but for now getting this mission done and over with was the priority though it's true that nobody knows much about him yet being in the same team as him.

"Sit"

Gort was at in a small bar on a wooden chair with a small wooden table and one other chair opposite him, in his hand was a glass of whisky with a single ice cube in it and on the other side of the table was another glass with the same contents, Claus was stood at the side of the table, trapped in the glare Gort was giving off like one thousand knives piercing him.

"But I'm a min-"

"No. you're not."

Gort glared and gestured his free hand for Claus to take a seat which he did obediently and slowly but maintained eye contact.

"Remove the glasses." Gort continued his glare, he was very serious in this moment.

Claus paused for a moment and reluctantly removed his sunglasses to reveal one of his eyes had been scarred while the other was purely black, like the eye of a rodent, showing that Claus is a Faunus and had been hiding it the whole time from his team.

"Now, would you like to tell me your name?"

"It's Clau-"

"Your real name, don't lie to me, I've got all your details on this scroll and now I'm here to find the truth." Gort brought out his scroll and showed Claus the screen with his face and details on it.

"You got me… My real name is Nezumi and if you translate it, it shows that I am a rat Faunus in eyes only or should I say, eye." Claus admitted defeat and confessed, revealing his true name, taking the glass in front of him and having a sip out of spite, gipping at the terribly strong drink and set it aside.

"Born in Vale and often bullied because of your features, even losing an eye thanks to an incident with Grimm, the children you were with ran off and left you for bait and was declared missing 8 years ago, the search being called off a year since the disappearance yet here you are, sitting with me sharing a drink." The professor spat out details about Claus without even batting an eye.

This gives Claus the burning question.

"Just how do you know this?!" He asked, gritting his teeth.

"I was in charge of that search, it brings me shame to think I never got to find you until you literally walked into Beacon and then later was on this team, I don't know how you got in with that forged ID but you did well, Oz… was never that perceptive." Gort took a sip from his glass, keeping eye contact with Claus, the Faunus felt defeated and worried that he would be kicked out of the academy, he had a mission to complete and to do that he needs to stay in Beacon.

"So, now that you know, what will you do?"

"Nothing." Gort slowly shook the ice around in his glass

"Huh?!" Claus' jaw dropped upon the fact that this professor would take no action against him for forging his way into the academy, there must be some reason behind this.

"Your team is already established and while we are in this bar, I am not your professor, just some old man who knows a tale or two, let's say what's said in here, stays in here, deal?" It was a deal that Claus couldn't refuse, in order to not get found out by the others and possibly be ejected out of the academy, he just nodded and lifted his drink as did Gort in response.

"So, I haven't told you my semblance if you're wondering how I knew everything." Gort took another sip.

Claus leaned forward to listen.

"Enhanced perception, it basically lets me look at the world at a much faster speed but of course that's only in the eyes, my body can't react as fast but with this, I can determine what are lies and predict my opponents moves." Taking another sip and finishing his glass, Gort reveals his semblance which explains his fight with Sky and why he was so dominant.

"Now we have information that binds us both, I have your whole past while you have my semblance, it may not seem like much but it's not something I give away easily if you understand." While it may not seem like much, Gort himself has had a history of where teams knew about his semblance and often mistook it as seeing the future which has lead to many complications and dangerous situations by relying on him to predict everything so Gort often keeps that information to himself to avoid complications.

"Got it." Claus nodded nervously.

"Besides, did you know I have a son at Beacon." Gort mentioned lightly, taking a swig from his glass.

"Do you? What's his name?"

"Shun Gort, he's in his second year now, he was never interested in detective work, he just wanted to learn my martial arts and now he fights with only his fists and gloves." Gort chuckled to himself, checking his surroundings quickly out of curiosity.

"You must be a good role model if he wants to be like you and learn from you." Claus took a sip from his glass and set it on the table.

"Well I used to be pretty famous you know? I was known as "one shot Lu" When I was younger because once I got into a fight with a huntsman and punched him so hard his aura shattered, and he went down in one punch, something like that would wow anyone right?" Gort laughed, musing over his past memories he shouldn't really be telling a student but it doesn't matter in this situation.

"That is quite the feat I'll admit although if you're that strong, why do you use a weapon?" Claus smiled, curious about his professor's past.

"Some things are best left for another time, I'll tell you once you graduate Beacon and maybe we can share a drink like this without the tension."

Gort finished off his drink and set it on the table, leaving some Lien on the table and stood up from his seat.

"With that out of the way, let's go give that circus a visit."

"Wait… what?!" Claus slipped his sunglasses on and said out of surprise.

"Haven't you heard? The circus is in town." Gort said with a smile, first time he smiled properly since going on the mission, Claus didn't know how to interpret it but just instead followed the professor out.


	5. Chapter 5- Red is a good colour

Chapter 5- Red is a good colour for closed curtains.

Without telling the rest of the team, professor Gort and Claus were doing a night investigation of the prime suspect inside the travelling circus tent, while hard to see at night, the tent stood stories tall with the fabric gently flapping and wavin due to the light wind, it was quiet, and nobody was around, the place felt almost abandoned.

"Before we go in, do you have any questions?" Gort turned his head to Claus, his eyes faintly glowing red which seems to indicate that he was using his semblance right now.

"Just, why didn't you bring the rest of the team?"

"It's because as I explained before, if we bring a large party to question someone, they will feel more on edge when conversing with us, while it may be more dangerous, it is easier to manage a person's emotional behaviour with two people than 5." Gort explained, turning his attention to the tent and put his hand through the split between the fabric, darting his eyes around to make sure no one else was around one last time.

"Anymore questions?"

"No professor."

"Then let's continue."

As Gort talked, he was the first to enter along with Claus closely behind, they both moved quietly in, it was dark, and no lights were on, only silhouettes and the faint light from the moon could be seen.

"Professor, can you see anything?" Claus whispered.

"Hold on."

Gort brought out a flashlight to light up small parts of the muddy floor as they searched around cautiously, Claus' heart began to speed up over how eerie and quiet the environment was, feeling like he was going to be spooked from behind at any moment.

"How long are we staying here for?" Claus whispered in a quickening panic.

"Until we find some or any evidence, I have a spare flash light, use it." Gort passed Claus a flashlight in which he took and began to creep in another direction, wanting to find something quickly so they could get out of there, truth be told, he hates haunted places and this place would properly be at the top bar for ghost hunters.

As Claus shone his flashlight around, he found the benches the crowd would sit on and then proceeded to walk around them and further into the circus, often checking around him so he wouldn't be spooked.

Now at presumably at the back of the tent, there were pieces of equipment like hoops, whips, shackles, props and sticks used for torches and various other items that look like they are to be used for torture than a circus although there was some more circus like materials and cloths but there was one weird item that caught Claus' attention.

He shone his light over it to illuminate the whole thing, it was a wooden box with some golden metal shining off the torches light… no more accurately looking at the shape, it was looked more like a coffin.

The student quickly covered his mouth to hide his instinctive yelling upon noticing it but calmed down to take a look at it.

The coffin had 4 brass handles on each side and a cross in the middle, the typical design, Claus looked back to see Gort coming close, he was about to say something till…

 _"_ _It's rude to peep on someone who's sleeping you know?"_

The voice of a young man echoed through the air like an echo that startled the two, Claus dropping his flashlight, sweating all over from fright as lights switched on, two at a time with a split second between them to light up the whole area until they formed a circle of lights that focused on the main stage, showing 4 rows of benches and the stage where the performers would be performing, revealing the tightropes and trapezes and all the equipment where Claus was standing where they were unusually out in the main part instead of being in the backstage.

But most importantly there was a figure that casted a large shadow floating, no more accurately hanging in the middle of the air on wires, the figure was of a boy who looked about 16 with an average build for someone his age, his hair was jet black with purple streaks, it was long and raised, there were bells located on some parts of his hair, his eyes were purple, almost like he had been possessed with black eyeliner making up the decorations on his face, he looked more like a marionette than an actual person.

He wore a dark sleeveless shirt with red ribbons on the front and wore black fingerless gloves with more red ribbons and a weird circular device on the top of his hands with wires stringing from him which indicates how he is keeping up there, he also worse black booty shorts and dark purple knee high socks along with some typical boys school shoes as he gave the two a creepy smile while looking down on them that threw Claus' mind into a panic and almost forgot how to speak, seeming like he was frozen.

"So, care to explain the coffin? Assuming you're the owner of this little circus of course." Gort turned off his flashlight and planted his cane down, unmoved by the terrifying appearance before him that managed to put Claus in an internal panic.

Gort stood strong, giving off a piercing gaze of the mysterious figure to further show he was not afraid of what's he's in front of him.

"Oh my, what mistake, I forgot to store my maiden, oh dear, not good." He spoke in broken words, his wicked smile changing into annoyance.

"Store? Never mind, do you know anything about the disappearances in this town or in fact the other towns this particular circus has visited?" Gort pressed on, he is sure he found the culprit but needed to know more to confirm.

"That is none of your concern, these lovely ladies chose to join my party, so they did, yes, you must be mistaken, leave." His voice growing more and more sinister as he spoke, he clearly didn't want the two wondering around his home but that gave concrete evidence that he was the one behind the kidnappings since he didn't deny it, more pleaded guilty.

"They didn't come with you, I know it." Gort took out the tea bags and sweets that Sky had from her investigation.

"You drugged them into coming to this place, I heard from the testimonies from the victim's families about their disappearances, now will you turn yourself over to the Vale security to be questioned or will I need to take you down there by force?" Gort growled, shooting a look at Claus and pointed him to the coffin.

Claus snapped out of his shock and nodded, running to the coffin lifting the lid open to show… a girl, about 18 or 20 in age, she had long blonde hair and was in a plain white dress, her arms were crossed over her body as she slept, that was exactly the evidence needed to prove this mysterious figure is the culprit but whether she was alive or not was another question.

Claus held onto the girls wrist to check her pulse but alas, there was nothing, before confirming she was dead he checked her neck for a pulse too but there wasn't one, the student stumbled back.

"Now, may I ask your name?" Gort continued.

The mysterious boy's expression changed even more so, he frowned and gritted his teeth.

He was angry.

"You've seen the precious maiden without paying for a ticket, you shall pay and including in your trespassing, one of your souls will suffice, now pay the price!" He yelled out, lowering himself to the ground, raising his hand and clenching his fists, frowning enough that his blood vessels could pop.

"Security! Dispose of them!"

As he said, creaks and cracks could be heard from around the tent, Gort and Claus realised this could be bad and quickly ran into the centre of the stage, weapons ready and looked at their surroundings, watching each other's backs, Gort keeping an eye on the mysterious boyo as he stood there and watched them like a curious bird.

Suddenly, figures started to emerge from the shadows, they walked limply into the light showing it several people walking like they were come kind of living corpse, it mostly compromised of women of all different features with one man being an exception.

"They are my workers, imitations of the ones I love, except the man of course, he was a fool who trespassed, just like you fools, he had strength so I kept him."

"Professor, what do we do? This is crazy, too crazy." Claus' voice slightly trembled, he was frightened but tried not to show it but wanted to get out as soon as he could.

"We need to escape somehow and alert the others, we may even need to call for back up and get out." Gort mumbled, he too was thinking hard at the situation at hand, the two were heavily outnumbered just like in the valley with the Grimm but this time it was with humans and they can't just simply kill a human, especially if they're innocent, Claus forgot to say they were dead.

"Professor?" Claus started to panic as he saw the figures edge closer and closer to them, closing off their escape route while but then he had a thought, a gamble at that but he had to try it.

"H-hey, ring leader how about we negotiate?"

"Must I listen?" The ring leader glared as wires retracted back into his devices.

"It's a good deal, trust me but first I need to ask something." Cold sweat ran down Claus' face.

"Claus! what are you thinking?" Gort snarled at him, holding his cane up from the bottom end in a defensive position.

"Kay, speak mortal." The ring leader held up his hand like he was in high school and just stared creepily at Claus, putting him under pressure though the way Claus a mortal perked up an interest in Gort, quickly going through the cases he has done in the past.

"May I ask? Who is this so-called Maiden you mentioned all these imitated and also we never got your name." Claus lowered his weapons to try not to draw suspicion although the gaze he was being given from this leader tore right through his soul and felt like his heart could get ripped out in an instant.

"Well, a name? Names are important for identifying an individual, I had many in past lives, but always one that stuck so I guess that will work, Identify me as Maven, now, now to answer why I seek my maiden, like me she lives and she lives in another body with another soul so I search to find her, I search to feel her love." Maven clutched his chest and made a pained expression remembering his past.

"I wanted… to feel her love again, I wanted to feel her touch once again, I want to be one with her again but alas, this world… THIS WORLD SEPERATED US!" He flipped his head up to stare at Claus with his eyes widened with grief, clawing at his face, seeming that his pain is something he cannot bear to handle.

"AND NOW, THE GODS! THE DAMN GODS HAVE CHALLENGED ME TO FIND MY MAIDEN MARY AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIIIIIIIN, EVEN IF I HAVE TO TURN THE WORLD INTO MY PUPPETS, I WILL KILL AND SLAUGHTER TILL I FIND HER, NOTHING CAN SEPARATE US AND COME BETWEEN OUR LOVE, WITH EVERY DEATH, WITH EVERY LIFE STOLEN SHE TELLS ME TO KEEP LOOKING, I TRY SO HARD BUT ONE SAY I SHALL SUCCEED!"

The two couldn't move, the performance given to them by the now insane ring leader Maven has sent a fresh new shockwave and insanity and fear through them as they learned about his reason but also just confirmed that everyone in this tent apart from these three are walking corpses, was this the work of his semblance?

"Now… does that answer the question proposed?"

The room went silent, but Claus slowly picked up the courage to speak again, now understanding Maven just that little bit more.

"If you… let us go…" Claus stuttered through his words while trying to hold back his fear but continued.

"I can show you… a girl that… might be who you're looking for, she could possibly be this Mary you are looking for."

Maven looked interested and curious and curled a small smiled, but…

"A nice offer, a truly nice offer but… tis not enough to forgive your sins for trespassing, sorry but one soul to pay the toll, enough to keep the other silent, yes?" Maven clicked his fingers and the now corpses started moving again with their quiet moans.

"Dammit!"

As Claus instinctively yelled out loud, then he got punched by Gort, his expression accurate for the term "a fiery rage"

"What did you think using your own team like bait like that was going to do?!"

"I thought if we both could get out without a fight, we could warn the others and fight together you know?"

"Well that clearly didn't work, now he's going to target the village to find her, possibly involving innocent civilians, the security here is too weak to handle this mess, do you understand?!"

Claus never considered how his actions might affect others as he had a quick think that Maven could very well target Ray and go to kill his teammates just for her and if the town resisted, they would be attacked too, not to mention the security is mainly meant to deal with Grimm which could be dealing with attacking Grimm drawn by the negativity created from the situation.

But nevertheless Claus never doubted his teammates, he knew their strength and felt like with everyone together they could capture Maven and settle this incident, he turned to his professor to speak.

"Professor I-"

"Save it, if you've understood what your actions might have done, and you regret it, take on that guilt, be a better person and learn from your mistakes." Gort said, passing his cane to Claus and brought up his fists with the leather gloves on.

"Go, warn the others and request extraction, you will need to be on the defensive and watch your backs, my cane uses fire dust, use it wisely." Gort took a step forward and gave first blood by delivering 3 fast blows to 3 corpses that got too close to comfort, aura exploding from each hit, knocking them back onto the floor.

"No aura, not to mention how they took the blow was strange, they didn't even react…" Gort muttered to himself with how it felt from that strike, the bodies were cold as he came to a conclusion that what he's fighting may not be alive, he clenched his fists tighter upon that thought.

"What about you?" Claus asked, for the first time, he properly felt concern for someone, even if he didn't know this professor for very long.

"It's my duty to keep the students safe, if it's just one soul he wants then let it be me that fights him, don't worry I don't plan on going down, just return with everyone as fast as you can, Go Claus, Run!" Gort says, delivering more powerful jabs and kicks to others around him with immense speed and power while keeping a strong and alert form with his fists raised, the corpses moving more to him.

Claus bit his lip and yelled.

"I'll come back for you!"

Claus began running, clutching onto the cane for dear life, knowing that further talking would distract him but as he ran past Maven, he spoke in his ear with a wild smile.

"I'll be coming."

But Claus didn't stop to listen, he kept running, knowing that he will regret this day for the rest of his days, now knowing that Maven will be coming for him and his team, mainly for Ray now but he can't think about himself and now has a fire lit in his heart to make sure everyone gets home safe and prays in his heart that Gort manages to escape somehow as he makes a mad dash out of the tent and back into the village as fast as he could.

Back in the tent, Gort was still beating down the corpses although they kept getting up, his blows being able to dislocate their limbs but that didn't stop them from moving as they still tried to attack him with whatever weapons they could find, from pipes to wooden planks to even a whip.

He concluded that what he was fighting were indeed corpses after seeing the bodied get up again from their heads being twisted and continued attacking.

The teacher could easily dodge between them thanks to his semblance and his fighting experience, gently weaving through the crowd while attacking at the same time.

"Your hatchling is gone, why do you still try to grasp at your life human?" Maven asks with a bored expression, taking a yawn for he has forgotten to sleep for weeks.

Gort got some distance between him and the corpses to give his answer.

"Unlike what you think, I don't plan on dying, as long as I live, I will keep struggling to survive, that's human nature don't you think? That's why we build walls and have defences to keep Grimm and people like you out." He said with a smirk, getting a measure for his escape.

"If that's your answer and willing to break your contract and defile my law…. Die." Maven bit his lip and flexed out his fingers, his eyes narrowing and widening as he quickly widened his stance and dashed forward.


	6. Chapter 6- One strike is all you need

Chapter 6- One strike is all you need.

In Gort's past life, he was known for being quite a strong fighter before being a detective or teacher, he studied a type of martial arts at a fighting school that utilised his aura output to deliver the strongest of blows without needing a weapon that were effective against both Grimm and humans, that was the beginning to his early day fame.

His aura was quite exceptional among his class, he had more than many had at the time, he was able to strike harder and faster than all the others with his semblance helping him predict where his opponents would strike next or their next move.

He would often have the upper hand in a fight, he was proud of his strength, but others grew jealous of him and talked behind his back, wanting to beat him in a fight no matter what after being shown up many, many times in practice fights, even trying to ambush him during his walks home but that only lead to failure where he did his famous one strike take down.

Until one day, they changed their focus and targeted one of Gort's loved ones, his mother, they broke into her house, thinking she was a strong fighter too and had been secretly training the man and left her on the floor with a fractured skull and multiple bruising on her body and having to be hospitalised for a long time while she recovered.

This drove the young man to action and he used his semblance for another purpose and lead an investigation on his own while the police did their own thing, in the end being able to trace it back since his enhanced sight meant that not only can Gort predict movement but he can also see things in much finer detail than most, he used that to find evidence of the break in with belongings that traced back to the few that hated him.

From that incident he decided it was best to change his ways and become a detective for a few years with being assigned to a variety of tasks, from search and rescue to solving murder cases but he never showed his real strength to others in fear he would spark that jealousy and recreate a similar incident so instead he wielded a weapon to hide what he specialises in.

Now with a wife and child, he only aims to train his family in a way so that they can defend themselves while passing on his true techniques onto his only son Shun to help him become the best huntsman there is.

Although right now at this moment, it was different, it was a life and death moment with no need to hold back, it was kill or be killed, he wanted to return home to see his family and sit down with a cup of tea after a day of hard work.

Stood in the circus, outnumbered, he has to fight his way to freedom, his heart beating with the burning passion to go all out.

He bent his knees forward and leaped over to his first opponent, planting his left foot into the ground, forcing himself to a stop as he thrusted his right fist into the corpse, blasting her away with a red aura burst, his eyes flicking over to his nearest opponent and his body following along, swivelling around as he got in a left aura punch into the corpse, repeating his last move.

Another female corpse with a metal pipe in her hand limply ran over and swung at the professor but Gort already saw though it, effortlessly knocking the pipe away with the back of his hand and driving his foot into her stomach for a powerful aura kick, Gort then went ahead to single handily punch, chop and throw the next few corpses than ran at him blindly while Maven sat on the wire, focusing on Gort's movements, analysing how he's moving.

The professor didn't pay attention to him as he was busy with the corpses as they don't seem to respond to pain if they feel any so with a blow that would normally cripple someone, they would get back up, even if their limbs are broken and bent, they wouldn't give up, there's even one with their head completely twisted around that's clumsily running around.

"No how many go to him, he won't stop, he predicts their attacks, future sight? No, he'd know what I'm planning by then, instinct? No, he moves to coordinated for that, must be combat experience, a fighter…hmmm troublesome." Maven was pondering over what Gort's semblance could be and how to fight him, using his "puppets" as decoys to figure out.

"Puppets keep fighting, fakes should be broken anyway, now, now how do I fight this one? His eyes work well, too well, his curse must be to let him slow down the world around him, a truly troublesome curse, only fought few with that." By "curse" Maven meant Gort's semblance, he never had a grasp of what a semblance was but often referred to them as a Curse.

While this battle goes on, Maven's mind reverts back to the past when he was all alone, with a different body of a man with a large build and seemed to be in his 50's with grey facial hair but bald, wearing dirty green cargo pants and a torn grey shirt.

He confronted a man who was smooth with the sword, a simple double sided one with gems on the hilt as he was able to cut through leaves in a forest, he was the definition of elegant but Maven specifically remembered how fast he was and how easily he lost to the man, his last thought was the tip of his blade going into his throat before snapping back into reality, wobbling on the wire but just about managed to regain his balance.

"That's how I fight him, speed, speed, speed, something he can't dodge, even if he can see it, his body be too slow, bodies have limited reactions speed is key." The ringleader giggled to himself with a sinister tone as he leaped from his wire and started swinging around the tent, clipping his wires on beams and around pieces of equipment while Gort was busy with the corpses, Maven was being particularly careful that Gort wouldn't notice him, using the shadows as best he could as he set his sneaky trap.

"I think I got my rhythm back." Gort smirked to himself, his form looking much more refined than earlier, when he delivered his next wild blow, it was so powerful it blasted a hole right through the corpses body with a huge shockwave bursting from behind it, enough to shake the surrounding environment, the professor was back in his zone, almost like he was losing his mind when he turned to the next attacking corpse and struck her head with enough force to make it fly straight off her body with little to no resistance.

Although Gort let his cockiness get to him when the only male corpse brought his fist down on him but the professor luckily blocked it but was now in a deadlock with him while the other females jumped onto his legs and tried to pin him down, Gort now cursing his luck and now noticed the wires around the circus, realising that what he was fighting was purely bait.

The trapped professor managed to shake one of his legs loose and kicked the male's shin with an aura burst from his knee, forcing him to collapse, now low enough to get his face blown off by one of Gort's famous punches, managing to set himself free from the corpses grasp and looked around for Maven, finding him sat in the darkness, things were looking fine till…

" _Silence"_

 _"_ _Darkness"_

 _"_ _Lonely"_

 _"_ _Heart"_

 _"_ _Mary"_

 _"_ _Beloved"_

 _"_ _Love"_

Maven chanted from above, knives in hand and his pitch-black aura shadowing over him as he leaped at great speeds in one direction onto another wire that launched him at Gort, their clashing of weapons and gloves sending sparks through the air but the freaky ringleader wasn't done yet.

"Christopher Marionet!" The ringleader yelled out while carrying out his succession of attacks, each being parried or dodged by the professor.

Gort grew tired of his tricks and waited for one more strike and timed it when he stepped aside to narrowly dodge the blades this time brought his fist down in the middle of Maven's back, bringing him down to the ground with astonishing force, send a shock through the earth, disturbing the earth and the fabric throughout the whole tent, shattering Maven's aura like tearing through paper as Maven gasped out all of his air in his lungs and fell.

"That should take care of it." Gort adjusted his gloves, looking at the other corpses, noticing they were still moving but kept their distance.

"Complete." Maven smiled a huge grin from where he laid although he coughed up a little blood, the impact seemed to have had a toll on his body, the wires snapped from his body, with creaking and wires breaking being heard throughout the whole tent, instantly putting Gort on guard as he quickly looked around to find what's happening.

"You bastard, what did you do?!" Gort asked angrily but before he could listen, he noticed a wire flying at him at speeds faster than his body could react but he could see it coming as it flew onto his body, tangling around his legs, joined by other wires doing the same thing around his arms and waist, Gort tried evading the others but it was a useless effort as he kept being slowed down further and further until he could not move any more while completely trapped by the wires.

"Ahahaha…. AHEHEHEHEHEHEEEE, Fell fooooooooor it!" The wicked Maven rose up and snapped his neck sideward at the professor with his large grin, proud of his little trap as he laughed and screeched in his triumph but keeled over slightly with a cough, the blow from earlier still affecting his body.

"Christopher Marionet… did you say earlier?" Gort seemed to remember the name from long ago, in his situation right now he had to buy time now, hoping Claus will bring the team over to help him while he was there, trapped, knowing that if he tried to struggle to get out that would only lead to his aura getting damaged and eventually broken, he couldn't afford to lose it at this moment.

"That was a name from long ago, I go by Maven Marionet now thank you." Maven stopped his laughing to reply, seeming very annoyed at Gort.

"There was a story I heard about him, over 200 hundred years ago, he was a nobleman that fell for a princess, he was devoted to god but even more so to his princess Mary Valhalla, correct?"

Maven's eyes immediately widened with surprise and grief, grabbing onto Gort with a furious expression, something definitely triggered him.

"Shut up… SHUT UP, SHUT UP, SHUT UP!" Maven glaring in anguish at Gort, began striking him with his bare fists yet his physical strength is quite weak, like a toddler could hit harder.

"Don't you bring up the past so casually!" Maven continued his weak punches instead of using his knives, reacting like it was HIS past Gort was talking about.

"But little did he know, she was a witch in secret, using her status and poor old Christopher as her test pawn, she let him get close, pretended to love him and eventually deceived him, when the day came that the kingdom found out, the country revolted and rebelled, as her body burned, she transferred her curse, or should I say, her semblance to move souls and combined with him who's semblance was to raise anything to do his bidding, like a Geist and is cursed to live eternally, it was a myth I read up on back when I started teaching." Gort continued speaking to make Maven lose his mind even more and hopefully breakdown into a freeze.

"I hate… Hate…. Hate…. HATE being reminded of our separation, you don't understand our love, the connection we share! We will reunite believe me!" Tears streamed down Maven's face as he screamed out at Gort, clawing at his face like a child.

"She deceived you, still it's hard to believe if you are the one from so long ago, it would normally be impossible"

"Shut up! I'll make you pay, I will!" Maven said in anguish as his mind snapped and split, losing all reason, he had lost all sense of mind and reason.

"The professors in trouble!" Claus burst through the door where the rest of the team was waiting, minding their own business nut now staring at Claus in surprise at his sudden appearance where he just collapsed on the ground from exhaustion.

Sky took a step forward but stopped herself and retreated back slightly.

"Say what? Professors in trouble?" Ray was the first to break the silence, putting down her hair brush, trying to act calm.

"Yes…. Me and professor went to go investigate…. circus tent… we were… attacked… he's all alone…. We gotta help!" Claus spoke in a panicked voice, him being out of breath did not help the situation.

"Hold on, take a moment to calm down first and explain slowly again for us all to hear." Sky tried to calm Claus down, to tell the truth, she couldn't understand what he was saying.

"There's no time… just follow me." Claus slowly stood up and walked out the room, he had no chance in running in his current state.

The team looked at each other and hopped out of their beds, grabbed their weapons while Ray picked up her hair brush to brush her hair on the way and followed behind.

"I hope he's just not fooling us." Ray pouted, annoyed about being interrupted from her hair grooming.

"He wouldn't just burst in and say that and try run out in a panic, he's never done that sort of thing before." Sky mentioned, she knew of Claus' behaviour and this was very unusual of him.

"We've just got to put our trust in him." Wave added on.

"Okay…" Ray agreed with them with slight hesitation, she still couldn't trust Claus.

When the team caught up, Wave grabbed Claus by the back of his coat and hoisted him on his shoulders and began running through the town.

"Tell us the way." Wave asked, Claus looked confused at Wave's actions but realised he was allowing him to take a breather in case they go straight into a fight.

"That way, you'll be able to make the tent taking that road."

"That's the main road, kind of obvious." Ray said, vaulting over a crate, having one of her weapons in her left hand in the gun form that with the blade pointing backwards to reveal the gun barrel.

Well, she wasn't wrong.

"Tell me Claus what was you doing with the professor?" Sky asked while she had the opportunity, she was worried but also annoyed.

"He wanted to talk-"

"About what?"

"Stuff.."

"What stuff?"

"I- can't tell you…"

"Jeez put some trust in us will you? We're teammates you should trust us, you better tell me after this."

Claus didn't know how to respond and just nodded, Ray was going to save something but thought to leave it for now.

With the tent in sight, Sky had a sudden thought to signal in for help as her intuition tells her this could be messy, she grabs her scroll and calls the local Vale security for possible back up to the circus tent, but they only responded that they will send over a guard to ask for more in a few minutes in a quick call, feeling like they may not come at all Sky also sent out a distress beacon in hope a nearby huntsman would come.

"They don't seem to realise how serious this situation is!" Claus yelled, suddenly losing his balance but managed to right himself as the team now stopped outside the tent.

"It can't be helped, we are only students after all, they don't seem to fully trust us." The engineer sighed and took out her weapon, unfolding it into its spear form, checking the components so that the transformation will be smooth.

Claus jumped down from Wave's shoulders and equipped his tonfa's and cautiously approached the tent.

"Security or not, I'm going in, you guys ready?"

"I seriously do think we should wait for the guard, he should know more about that tent than us, plus it's extremely creepy." Ray felt nauseous about going into that tent, looking around at the dead and creepy atmosphere is pretty much enough to throw her into a panic attack if spooked.

"I sort of agree with her, this might be dangerous." Wave agreed, trying to reason with Claus.

"guys, the professor is in danger, come on!" Claus gritted his teeth, he was determined to go in by himself if the others refused if he had to.

"Claus, I'll come with you, we will take a look and if it's too dangerous we'll back out, okay?" Sky now trying to be the voice of reason, patting Claus on the shoulder and looking over at the other two.

"Come on, we'll go in first and you two just follow."

She smiled at the two and they relaxed slightly and then nodded to Claus to take the lead but really Ray wanted to wait outside the tent for a couple minutes before going in.

Claus was the first to enter the tent along with Sky and they couldn't believe what they saw.

A huge number of wires strung up around the circus like spider webs, the lights flickering and the pieces of wood and the benches broken and chipped, showing signs of a large battle that took place there earlier, in the performance circle was about 30-50 bodies stammering around or crawling from their legs being blown off or broken, all circling one boy, standing or laying still like dolls, awaiting instructions in the middle which was indeed Maven, hunched over, sobbing to himself as his wires began spinning back into the devices on his hands and legs.

Most worrying of all was what was hung up before him.

It was Gort, being held up by one of his arms with wires wrapped around his arm and throughout his body.

He was slowly bleeding from multiple cuts from the wires digging into his skin and stab wounds from knives as drops of blood dripped from his lifeless body, he wasn't moving but it was unknown if he was alive or not although looking at the environment, although it looked like he put up a strong resistance before being caught.

Both Sky and Claus were frozen in place, their throats unable to make any noise for they couldn't speak until a certain noise suddenly erupted through the circus.

Claus started to panic, coming out from his shock and was more concerned about the condition Gort is in than anything else, he wanted to save him but doubted his own skills upon looking at that horde and Maven since if they can bring down the professor then Claus is led to believe he's have no chance.

He didn't have enough confidence, he was too scared, realising his throat was sore, it hurt a lot, but he didn't know why but he can hear someone calling out, they were screaming for a while, someone screaming until he realised.

 _He was the one screaming._

This snapped Sky back to her senses, focusing on calming her teammate down, grabbing his shoulders and shook him violently in an attempt to get him under control.

"Claus snap out of it! Take a breather, Hey!" Sky desperately called out, looking over to Maven briefly to notice he started turning slowly in response to the scream, causing Sky to panic even more herself as she desperately shook her teammate.

She even slapped him, hard enough to knock his sunglasses off just as Ray and Wave rushed into the tent upon hearing the noise but also froze at the sight that Sky and Claus just witnessed.

Claus finally stopped screaming and looked at Sky confused and afraid, not even aware that the engineer saw his secret, he then gripped onto her shoulders and gave a pained expression as he mumbled.

"Help"

Sky was surprised upon seeing her teammates eye for the first time but had no time to ask about it as she quickly put the sunglasses back on him.

"So… calmed down yet?" Sky asked, concerned for his feelings, she showed a little smile as Claus was about to say something...

"More intruders?" Maven now staring at the team, neck snapped to the side, his ominous purple eyes wide and red with tears of blood streaming down his face as he stood in the spotlight while surrounded by his puppets, he was clearly mentally unstable.

Sky let go out Claus, pointing her weapon at Maven, her hands were trembling as it was clearly shown with her shaking weapon, this was the most she could do without collapsing on herself since the vibes Maven gave off were almost too much for the girl.

"Sky, who is he?" Wave asked but got no response, so he ran over to her and patted her shoulder, scaring Sky as she screamed and turned to point her weapon at Wave in fright, causing Wave to have a flashback to his past and grabbed his head in pain, taking a step back but took a deep breath and calmed himself before facing Sky once again.

"Come on, I just did it, just take a deep breath, don't let your emotions control you..." Wave have her a brief smile while talking to himself, taking his weapon out and let the two blades inside the handle shoot out and the string to form the bow.

"Oh… I'm sorry, I guess I lost it…" Sky looked down and turned around to face Maven, taking a deep breath and on in the inside, regret about her sudden action boiled up as she felt really bad just then for one showing herself up in front of her team but also triggering Wave's mind since the wolf faunus has been taking some therapy at the academy to control his emotions to help his PTSD.

Though thanks to this Sky regained her composure.

"S-Sorry to ruin the moment but there's a really creepy guy other there with some friends looking like they want to string us up!" Ray screeched, having her weapons up shakily, waiting for Maven to move.

"His names Maven… he's dangerous, be careful." Claus said, unsure why Maven isn't taking any action till now.

"Maiden… blonde… come… closer" Maven spoke, cracking his neck straight and tilted it in the other direction, wanting a closer look at Ray.

"Blonde… I think he means you Ray." Claus said, baring his weapons at Maven still.

"Well obviously, but I don't want to take a step closer to that creep though" Ray refused.

"I'll guard you, just move forward a little, maybe we could talk a bit and buy some time." Wave suggested, getting an arrow out and putting it by the side of his bow, he was thinking about trying to buy time to get the security here as backup.

"But I still don't feel safe going near him." She added.

"We'll protect you and stay close to you, there's nothing to fear, come on." Claus said, knowing that if they do anything wrong at this situation could lead to a much worse situation.

"If an Idol can't handle stepping forward a few steps then she can't really handle standing on a stage isn't that right?" Sky teased to provoke Ray into moving.

Ray stood conflicted but sighed heavily and stood forward

"First of all, what I want to do doesn't involve a stage, but I'll be trusting you all to keep me safe, okay?" The Idol said, taking a step closer towards Maven until she was in one of the many spotlights dotted around the circus.

"Leave it to us." Wave gave a smile.

Upon seeing Ray, Maven's eyes started to narrow slightly then widened, his mouth beginning to grin wider than anything seen and took a step forward, dazzled by Ray's golden beauty like he just found the most beautiful woman in the world.

"Oh Mary… I've found you."

 **Sorry for the week delay, been busy and editing these chapters can take awhile, it's possible that next week will be delayed too since I am at a convention for a few days and moving house, all is fun, anyway hope you enjoyed this chapter!**

 **Like our page Tiger Wolf on facebook by searching IceandSilver.**


	7. Chapter 7- But help is always needed

Chapter 7- But help is always needed.

Maven looked on at Ray with his purple glowing eyes with a smile that could be classed as affection?

Either way he crouched down on his all fours, raised his hind legs and leaped at the Idol, screaming "Mary!"

The Idol couldn't move, she was frozen at the creepy sight of Maven as he flew to her, she didn't have time to react but was saved when Claus ran in front and landed a blow into Maven's abdomen with his tonfa's, setting off an explosion from his weapon and sending the ringleader up into the air which he rapidly recovers and hops onto the trapeze, jumping from wire to wire, stopping to briefly to say a sentence.

"Oh… it's you again intruder, you dare keep me separated from Mary?!" He screeched, his eyes wide in anger but this time like a predator staring down at its prey though when he screams it's hard to take his voice seriously because it just sounds like he was kicked in the place where the sun don't shine.

"Don't think I'm running away this time you damn puppet." Claus pointed his weapon at him.

He's not going to back down now, he felt enough shame running the first time and leaving Gort by himself so this time he will stand and fight.

Ray stumbled back slightly, recomposing herself and took a deep breath.

Wave pulled back on his bow with two yellow tipped arrows and fired them at Maven in rapid succession, the arrows giving off a electrical static as they flew in the air, but the ringleader simply leaped out of their way and swung around the Circus with a heinous laugh.

"There's always an obstacle in our way Mary but no matter, I'll dispose of them like I always do, and we can be together."

Still… his voice is ridiculous.

"Just who the hell is Mary?! My name is Ray Golden-Wind! Popular huntress in all of Vale!" Ray snapped, she was now more bothered about being called someone else as if she's being compared which is what she hates the most.

For her being compared to someone else means they are more interested in the other person than herself which just screams that they are not interested in Ray for who she is but who she mimics and that pisses her off greatly.

Maven leaped forward with two daggers and took some slashes at Claus where the faunus had no choice but to block and stand guard until he found an opening and went for it but Maven just swung around his arm and leaped back onto another wire.

Sky realised this could turn out really bad if they were to fight Maven together with the corpses, observing how Gort was strung up and was surrounded by them when the team got into the tent, she tapped on Wave's shoulder and pointed him to the mob.

"Claus, Ray can you two keep that guy busy? We're gonna keep the walking dead at bay."

Claus blocked another of Maven's knife attacks and swiped back but missed as Maven as he leaped back into the safety of above once again, Claus, getting sick of him and started shooting his rockets out at the ringleader where he was flipping around on his wires, stringing them around the tent like in the fight with Gort but of course the team isn't aware of Maven's unusual planning.

"Got it, he seems fixated on me and Ray anyway so go, be careful these things don't feel pain from what I've gathered." Claus advised them, backing up closer to Ray, thinking about protecting her at all costs even though she was fine now.

Sky simply nodded, and she and Wave ran ahead to the mob of corpses, Wave split his weapon in half with the string in the middle keeping them together so it's a nun-chuck sword and the two started fighting the mob with ease, taking them down one at a time, Sky being careful not to get blood on her and trips over her weapon since she's not used to its length but quickly gets back up with an upwards kick to a corpse's chin and continued fighting.

"Claus, I'm fine now, I'll fight by your side." Ray let out a discouraged sigh and put her back to Claus', weapons ready as the two observed Maven's movements while slowly edging away from the walking dead.

"I know, I was just waiting for you to get your butt into gear."

"W-what?! Well excuse me for being frightened of a stalker that's trying to behead me!" Ray retaliated, flustered but that gave Claus a new idea.

"Hey you know, since you're an idol and stuff, wouldn't he technically your fan?"

"What?! What?! You really think I'd take this fool of a guy for a fan!? Not. A. Chance! though I can't choose my fans."

This caught Maven's attention and now he started spinning himself down above the two like a spider on its web in hope of listening to what they had to say, it was Claus' plan to slow Maven down enough to get close to him but he didn't think it would work this well.

"Mary? What are you talking about? I am your biggest and closest fan, we used to play together, laugh together and sing together."

Ray looked up and erked, thinking she could never be friends with someone like that.

Claus took this opportunity to swing around his tonfa for a blow but instead angled up and shot at Maven before he could escape in which he got him mid movement and sent him crashing into the floor before Ray.

Ray took this chance to rush at Maven where the two-clashed blade and got into a lock.

"Why must you reject me Mary?! Why?"

"That's because I am not Mary, my name is Ray!"

"Lies! LIES!"

The two separated and Claus leaped in front of Ray with the next attack but missed as Maven flipped backwards and caught on another of his wires and spun up.

"You are the one I seek! You are my maiden that I lost so long ago, so why?!" He screeched in anguish, tears flowing down his face though his voice is still ridiculous.

"That's because you're mistaking her for someone else, and for your information I am her first and only fan thank you" Claus declared out loud with pride, rendering Ray speechless and forcing Maven to go blank in an awkward silence with the noises of Sky and Wave fighting being heard in the background.

"What… was that?"

"You heard me right, I am her first and therefore best fan, you got a problem with that?" Claus looked back to see Ray with her hands over her mouth and the fact she was crying, not because of the situation but over the fact she realised that she has her first ever fan ever since she wanted to be an Idol, well one that actually confessed they were a fan of her.

Upon Maven seeing that reaction however sparked something else within him, Jealously, jealous of the fact that Ray gave Claus that reaction while only rejecting him, he just accepted that to get the others out of the way, he would have to be a bit more rough than usual, now letting the wires flow out and tying them around beams, now leaping at Claus, emotionless.

Claus turned back and had no choice but to block Maven's knife attacks while being careful of the wires around him, trying to not get caught while Ray leaped back and put her weapon into gun form and insisted on providing cover fire instead.

Maven while dodging the bullets was moving swiftly through the air, Claus was struggling to keep up and was forced to go on the defensive against the constant knife attacks until he stepped back onto a pile of wires, in which he found out why there were so many as multiple wires suddenly trapped and tightened around his leg and hoisted him up by his leg.

"Claus!" Ray shouted, turning back into blade form and ran to his aide but was instead met by Maven's now blank expression and the two clashed blades a few times but Maven had speed on his side and did a low sweep to Ray's shins and kicked her on the floor, leaping on top of her.

The Idol braced herself, squeezing her eyes shut until she felt something drag up her neck, it was wet and slimy but also warm until she opened her eyes and saw Maven was licking her neck while also keeping her arms down.

"This taste… is the taste of my maiden alright."

Ray couldn't believe what the hell just happened to her and all she could do was scream, kicking and trying to move her arms to get away from him until her semblance unconsciously activated, giving Maven and Claus the image of Ray as a child, with her back facing them, crying.

"I'm sorry… don't look at me like that…I'll do better, I promise…" she spoke.

Maven was dazzled by the golden image, he didn't notice Claus taking aim at him from behind while upside-down, taking a shot, forgetting about Ray's situation of not being able to activate her aura until the shot landed.

The two were engulfed in smoke in which one person leaped out but it was Maven once again, escaping into the darkened corners while Ray was laid on the floor with what seems to be golden aura surrounding her before fading, it was her aura and she had unintentionally activated it and that protected her.

"Claus?" Ray's mirage had worn off.

"Your aura activated." Claus smiled but felt dizzy from being hung up for so long.

Ray just looked up at him and smiled.

The wires holding Claus up had been cut and he fell to the floor with a thump, he looked behind him to see Sky stood behind him, both panting slightly, just finished immobilising the mob.

"Are you guys okay? We heard Ray scream and well, we had to rush over." Sky said.

"Well we are fine for now… just this guy's too much for us." Ray sighed, feeling defeated as she rubbed her neck with her shirt and then looked over to where Maven had retreated to.

"His combat style seems to be a hit and run, it shows he can't take us all on at once and he knows that, using this place to his advantage." Sky said, she had actually been watching the two fight while taking on the mob, there was some cut wires around her arm, showing she got caught in one of his traps too.

"How the hell do we beat him then?" Claus turned back and asked.

"We will just need to hold out till help arrives really."

Claus looked behind Sky to notice Wave had gotten Gort down and was tending to his wounds, he felt a moment of relief flowing through him and eased his worries.

" _Silence"_

 _"_ _Darkness"_

The 3 looked up at Maven in the darkened corner, with his knives across him as he began chanting.

 _"_ _Lonely"_

 _"_ _Heart"_

"Get Ready." Sky tensed up, holding her weapon across her body, ready to block whatever attacks are gonna be coming.

 _"_ _Mary"_

 _"_ _Beloved"_

"He here comes!" Ray called out.

 _"_ _Love"_

 _"_ _Christopher Marionette!"_

Maven leaped from his position at lightening speed, first targeting Claus, getting a successful first strike in, then leaping to another wire for his second strike, aiming at Sky but just barely misses with a hair width, landing on another wire and repeated the same moves, targeting only Sky and Claus four more times before landing on the ground like how a cat lands on the ground on their feet and waits idly, his face was still blank, it was like something broke in him.

Sky fell to her knees while Claus fell flat on the ground, his aura shattering, him now vulnerable to Maven's traps.

"What the hell was that?" Sky panted, using her spear as support as she stood up, noticing even more wires on the ground and was careful about moving.

Though it was clear he wasn't targeting Ray at all.

Maven raised one of his hands with a few wires on his fingers, then pulled on them causing breakages and creaking to echo around the circus as things snapped and tensed up. Claus noticed what was about to happen and what was probably the same fate that Gort succumbed to for when he lost.

He didn't think about himself, he was for the first time in his life, content on saving others, it threw away his rationality as he struggled to his feet and ran to Sky, her turning to look at Claus, surprised as she was pushed away while the wires from the ground tensed and snapped to snare Claus, wrapping around his body and tightening around him, enough to cut through his clothes and cutting into his skin as wires tightly bounded around him and held him still.

He tried to not scream out, biting his lip till it bled as he hung there, trapped but luckily not bleeding a lot but the pain is unimaginable every time Claus makes even the slightest of moves, somehow his sunglasses managed to stay in place by some miracle.

"Claus why?!" Sky called out but there wasn't enough time to react for Maven ran up and thrusted his knife forward.

Sky knocked it out of the way and with the other side of her spear, she swung it up to counter, making Maven leap backwards and again to dodge Ray's sudden attack.

Ray focused on wild and quick attacks at the ringleader, she was angry, showing it through her uncoordinated attacks, like a child swinging a couple of sticks, she was worried about Claus yet knowing that she couldn't just sit there and do nothing, yet for Maven, dodging these attacks were pure child's play.

"Mary, why are you doi-" Maven broke off mid-sentence upon noticing Sky coming in from above, for a downwards slash and dodged out of her way.

Sky had been able to lower Claus onto the floor using her semblance to untangle some of the wires but left others that were cut into Claus deeper than others to be safe and had placed a sheet underneath him to keep the dirt off him.

Next Sky proceeded to kick Ray and face back to Maven to spin her weapon, getting it caught on a wire, thus proceeding to change the sword from to get free.

"Take some time off!" She yelled, running forward to fight Maven, at this point Sky was effectively fighting alone again while Ray calmed down.

Ray sat on the ground and took a deep breath, she looked over to Claus who seemed to have passed out and stood up, watching the two, then looked at her scroll to see Sky's aura levels slowing getting lower and lower every time she gets hit by the wires or the knives but then also noticed a green Icon on the map that is said to be a huntsman nearby, that's what professor Mint told her in class a week ago anyway.

Ray then thought to take a couple of shots at Maven, hoping she could attract that huntsman's attention, unable to approach the two due to their fast-paced movement as Sky clearly got used to her lance, now being able to thrust it quickly and spin it to fend off Maven's wires.

Though it makes the Idol remember what Gort said about Sky, that she's better facing humans than Grimm and that is evidently true as Sky thought with quick reactions like she's predicting Maven's attacks, intuition, something gained from fighting a long time.

Ray she thought to help in other ways, running over to Claus to cover for him, looking over to Wave and nodding at him.

Now it turned int between Maven and Sky now, the two were locked in a fierce struggle to gain the advantage over one another, Maven using his wires to flip over Sky and to get out of her range before jumping in for lunge attacks that just get knocked away and then ending up with Maven getting punched in the face.

Sky couldn't move as much as she wanted to, being careful about the wire traps being laid around but her aura was now low but assuming Maven's was too at the two clashed again yet Maven getting the upper hand for an uppercut of Sky but she returned that with a headbutt.

Maven stumbled back and got caught on one of his own traps that snared his arm, giving Sky the opportunity to strike but Wave ran behind her and threw her back to Gort saying.

"Time to switch out, if you lose your aura, you lose against this one."

It made sense to switch out after seeing the results of what happens when someone gets caught in one of Maven's traps and Wave clearly had the most aura right now.

Wave ran at Maven with his weapons together now and swing at Maven's stomach.

Maven leaps up to dodge and lifts himself up to release himself from his own trap and somersaulted down to kick Wave, but his kick is blocked as Wave raises his weapon and threw the ringleader to the side and took a step back, awaiting to receive another attack.

Maven did just that, coming at Wave with a spinning attack, only being able to hit the weapon as Wave maneuverers to receive each attack, not being able to find any openings to counter attack, all he can do is block and buy time until someone came, then something clicked in his mind, he got the string out while still receiving the attacks and pulled out a red tipped arrow and then another arrow with multiple ends on it.

First shooting off one arrow to force Maven to retreat and then pulling back on the second arrow and fires it, but this arrow was a special one as on being shot, it split into 15-30 different, smaller arrows but in a much wider direction in which Maven couldn't dodge as he took the attack head on and fell to the floor and got snared by another of his traps, now struggling and panicking as they were around his neck and one of his legs, his air pipe slowly being crushed.

Although the stubborn ringleader wasn't done just yet.

"Fools… how dare these fools make a mockery out of me, in front of my maiden!" Even though he's a mockery to humanity at it's finest, he shifted his attention back onto Ray and didn't move, because he couldn't but instead just gave her a smile.

"One day… I will return and maybe we can meet under better circumstances… I'll evolve once again for you"

Then a shot screamed through the air and exploded onto the side of Maven's head but the size of the explosion was like a cannon shot out of nowhere, sending Maven a distance from his current spot with his aura shattering.

"Looks like I made it in time!"

Wave focused his attention on the entrance into the circus where there was a large man of a very muscular build, wearing a green sleeveless shirt, wearing some black baggy trousers with a huge belt to compliment it, he had a short but sharp brown beard and short spiky brown hair to match along with a scar on his cheek and many scars on his arms but most importantly.

His weapon was massive, it was a medieval cannon with two large blocks on the back in where he was holding it from, now transforming it to be a giant hammer with spikes decorating it, it seemed like a weapon that no human could use, even Wave with his insane strength couldn't confidently wield it, yet here is this mysterious man using it like a child's toy.

He gave a smile and looked around to see the two injured and the girls only slightly injured and then Wave with his weapon up, pointing it at Maven and pretty much got the jist of the situation and facepalmed, like he regretted coming here.

"So that call I got was to rescue come little chicks learning to fly, what a waste of my talent but hey you guys are hanging in there so that's a bonus."

The unknown huntsman put his huge weapon on his shoulder and approached Maven, when he was met by a surprise attack as he stabbed the huntsman, but his aura prevented the knife from piercing.

"Is that it? I don't even need to use this weapon against you." He sighed, tossing his weapon aside and proceeds to punch Maven in the face multiple times and kicks him away, now Maven gasps for air as the wires around his neck get tighter around him.

"Whoops, I guess I hit him too hard." The man laughed out loud.

"You think?! Anyway I'm assuming you're the help we asked for." Wave said, worried for what Maven might do and is keeping an eye on him.

"Names Wulf, that's all you need to know kid, anyway I need to get this one out of those wires and in jail."

"Another huntsman… troublesome, time to quit, game over, Mary…." Maven had risen himself up by his wires, holding himself up with his hands, now bleeding from the wires.

"That idiot! Kids, look away!" Wulf yelled out, covering Wave's eyes, Ray and Sky doing as told.

 _Click_

That sound echoed through the air, soon afterwards, some of the security burst into the tent, getting a grasp of the situation and immediately ran to the injured to check their injuries and brought in a medical team to get Claus and Gort on stretchers, the other guards escorted Ray and Sky out while Wulf and Wave were taken out too, the team trying their best not to look up, assuming that Maven just committed the greatest sin.

The guards checked around the other parts of the tent and one was surprised by the sheer amount of bodies there were around the place and surely had many questions to ask but it was best to get everyone evacuated first.

"Hey wait, I left my weapon in there!" Wulf yelled out to the security.

"You'll have to wait after we're done inspecting the place."

"You shittin me? I need it!" The huntsman tried pushing back but it took 4 officers to get him to go the direction they wanted him to go.

"You'll get it back very soon, just wait!" One of the officers said, struggling to push Wulf back.

"You better not scratch it you hear I just got it restored!"

"Out of all huntsman, why did we get to have the loudest one?" Ray sighed as she was being lead into an ambulance along with Claus and Sky, Wave was being kept back for questioning and Gort was put into another ambulance and driven away swiftly meanwhile Wulf was being a handful, wanting to get his weapon back that he accidentally left in the tent, but as of right now, it was a journey to a hospital… again.

 **Probably one of the hardest chapters I've written since Maven's attack pattern is just so weird, why do I do this to myself? Oh well it was fun thinking about it all and his twisted personality, stay tuned for next week!**


	8. Chapter 8- Voids that need to be filled

Chapter 8- Voids that need to be filled

In a space, a dark, quiet space, Maven was simply drifting in the cold darkness, like he was submerged in water, floating freely, it was not clear where he was but at the same time it didn't matter for he knew it was the end, whenever he died he would return to this place.

He slowly opened his eyes, as if he was awakening from a dream, slowly but calmly, his eyes went from purple to blue and his form was that of a man with ocean blue hair and was dressed in a formal fashion like a medieval nobleman.

As he slowly moved his head around to look at his surroundings and then to his hand, realising where he was and came to the conclusion, a very sad conclusion.

"Oh… I died."

He spoke softly, he acted completely differently than from himself back in the circus tent, it was like how he acted thus far was also nothing but a dream.

A faint light that grew brighter until it took the form on a spectral girl with long blonde hair, similar to Ray's as she floated around Maven's still body like a fairy taking the interest in a human.

"It seems you failed again, my knight." She spoke with a slight giggle.

"Mary… that's your voice I can hear… is that right?" Maven spoke quietly, he was barely able to move in the space he was in, he could barely see but knew from the voice he heard that she was the one he loved.

"You know you can't give up, until you find my body, I cannot return, you must continue thy search." She spoke, now showing her purple eyes that lightly shone in the darkness, now behind Maven, kissing his neck lightly before pushing him away.

"My maiden, it hurts, being separated from you like this, it hurts so much." He felt his heart clench and grit his teeth for a moment, holding back his tears as all what he want's is to be together with his beloved again but the curse, or rather semblance that was passed onto him rendered him unable to pass as each time he dies, his soul gets transferred to another body and the cycle repeats.

"That young woman, she is the one you want, she possesses what I seek, now do thy best, my knight"

In truth, back at the moment Mary died, her semblance was to pass on her soul with others and thus transferred over to Maven and then this was the beginning of what became Maven, the souls of Mary and Christopher Marionette combined.

She could often tell him to keep pushing forward, killing girls that looked similar to Mary in a attempt to have an empty vessel for his beloved to return to in hope he could hear her laugh, go for picnics with her and be happy again all while not knowing he was being used as a murder puppet while Mary deceived him with false information and methods to bring her back which can never happen, the man was the closest thing to being cursed to eternal life.

But she will keep telling her lies, and the poor man believed them all because his love made him blind, stealing his sanity forcing him to only look one way in hope to bring her back, while there used to be no hope of bringing Mary back, at the sent with SCRW, she had a revelation, a vessel that proved more useful than Christopher, it was Ray, she then wished for Maven to track her down so that Mary can take over her body when the time was right and continue her schemes.

There was 2 reasons for this, one, the story of Maven was starting to become more and more common and to keep his existence a secret she needed a new mind and a new name, to allow her to continue the killing as she loves.

The second reason, Ray's semblance has something more to do with her than just an illusion, she felt something else and needed to confirm.

But for now, here is the history of how Mary and Christopher began which would soon develop into Maven.

Mary was a princess of an old country that is no more, she loved nothing more than watching humanity struggle, the old country wasn't large, neither was it rich, the common folk often struggled to get by with the constant changing weather and high taxes that were used for Grimm protection though the country struggled, the people were tough and were used to the hard labour of farming and defending their territory.

Mary would usually think of ways to make her people suffer and would speak with her father, the king into creating new laws or taxes to make life harder for the people within reason or she would personally go out and subtly ruin whatever village she'd visit disguised as a "Formal Visit"

she often indulged in witchcraft and used her position to manipulate her people while wearing the fake but invincible smile, most importantly Christopher Marionette who was a noble who lived close by fell in love with her at first sight at one of the "Formal Visits" and would do anything to make her happy, his intentions at the time were pure and he was an honest man but little did he know that this would be his downfall.

She took advantage of that.

She spent time with him, enjoying meals together, pretended to be his lover, and even accepting gifts from him, this was all to get him completely on his side and so she could use him as she pleases, she taught him to only look at her and to never cheat on her and would assassinate any other girl that tried to get close to him in secret.

She took a particular interest in his semblance to move objects around him and controlling them at his will, it was a powerful semblance and she wanted it badly, though only working on non-living objects, she taught him and deceived him into thinking he can further strengthen his semblance by preforming it on those who died and using those dead bodies to do his bidding, she called it a curse, something everyone has and is looking for a way to cleanse humanity and with the help of Christopher, it will help her advance her research in finding a cure.

The poor nobleman took that lie without question, love made him blind and Mary knew full well how to utilize that.

Of course though, this made poor Christopher happy, he easily fell for her trap and helped her in her research, torturing the common folk in secret, kidnappings and developing his semblance to raise more bodies, it was going well until the king caught on what was happening when he sent a spy to find out what his daughter had been doing in secret.

He made a hard decision upon finding out what his daughter had been up to.

The king rounded a group of his guards to capture Mary and Christopher, even to execute them if they resist, in that mean time, the ruthless princess set fire to her room and was indulged with self-immolation in an attempted to burn away the evidence along with herself with Christopher banging on the door, crying his eyes out and desperate to save his love, his "Maiden" But in her last moments she said.

"May we find each other in another life, another time and then we can truly be happy, where we become one, time will pass, our bodies may perish but we shall never lose hope for the love between two shall not break, farewell o' dear life, it was fun but now it is time to start anew."

This was more of a chant she uttered from her witchcraft research more than a farewell that guaranteed that her soul would move inside Christopher's, has it did, the guards put an end to his misery, dealing him a swift death from behind, thus sealing the two together and began what was now the man named Maven, moving from body to body, killing those who he thought would be the vessel to let Mary come back or who are reincarnations of her, following her whispers to kill and deceive until he was able to infiltrate a circus and murdering all those in it and using their bodies to work for him in securing more victims and making his work more efficient as it was the plan Mary set so she could witness the lives being taken and enjoyed the ugly side of the world more than the thought of Grimm taking out humanity, she loved watching humans kill and betray each other, this world was just a big game to her.

After the whole ordeal in the old country, the father realised his mistakes and that his love for his daughter got the better of him, with no real successor to succeed him the next years got worse till the point where the country collapsed and was overrun by Grimm, just at Mary had planned, destroying as much evidence as she could before moving on.

Now back in the reality that the two existed in.

"Remember our promise, my dear knight, the one you seek is at an academy, the one in gold with the pure heart, she is who you seek but first we need a pure vessel to complete my re-existence into this cruel world so I can save it from salvation." The ghost of Mary continued to softly whisper to him, her voice was soothing, almost impossible to ignore.

"Yes, my maiden, I believe I have found you at long last, while she may be small, she is without a doubt your body, without a doubt, the one I seek." He said, completely sure that Ray who he was talking about being the one he has found.

"Excellent, we shall begin the next part of bringing me back, don't fail me, my knight."

"yes, my maiden, I love you my grace."

"And may our love bloom once more."

The ghost of Mary dissolved back into the darkness as another light shone in front of the unfortunate man, the beginning of his next life was to begin with a new mission on his mind.

Now in the Bosu local health care centre, Claus was getting a final check up on his injuries, he was discharged, thanks to his aura being able to heal his wounds quickly and walked back to the room the rest of his team was staying but scars on his arms where the wires cut in deeper were apparent.

It has only been a day since the incident occurred, luckily Gort was rushed to the hospital and given treatment in time and now he is in a stable condition and has just recently woken up, despite his injuries, leaving the hospital with a cast on his arm but most of his injuries were mostly healed thanks to his aura but he had a duty to check on SCRW since something like this obviously would've shaken everyone up.

Claus was the first back, in the room was Sky, Wave and Ray with their stuff packed up, quietly playing a round of cards until they saw Claus walk in and launched to their feet and ran up to the man, Ray was about to win a game with a royal flush but that didn't matter right now.

"How are your injuries!?" Sky was the first to ask, standing closer to him than the others.

"They are fine, luckily I healed quickly even though I'm stuck with a couple of scars, but I'll happily call them battle scars." He gave off a smile.

"Ahh, that's a relief" Sky gave a fake smile, taking a step closer to her teammate and then punched him in the face with all her might, sending him into the wall and then used her assemble semblance to drag him back to Sky where she tightly grabbed his jacket and was about to give him a mouthful, Ray and Wave jumped back and fell over in surprise to that reaction.

The night before Claus returned Sky was scarily quiet, they just assumed it was because of the fight which is to be expected, they were all on the low side but didn't expect this.

"What the hell was you thinking back then! Those wires could've cut you into multiple pieces you idiot!" She stopped for a moment to allow Claus to give a reply, trying to hold her sudden bit of anger in but failing badly, Wave jumped at Sky's sudden actions and knew it was high time to run out of the room and get Wulf who had been looking after the team while Gort was out of action.

"Bu-"

"No excuses, no if's no buts! Don't do anything to put your life in danger you hear me?! What feelings do you think I would be feeling if I were to lose you! If you had died back then… then… answer, say something!" Sky was being unreasonable, she needed to calm down but couldn't.

Ray wanted to say something but for the first time, she was actually too scared to say anything.

"I-I'm sorry okay?! I'm sorry!" Claus pleaded, bracing himself for another merciless punch.

"What kind of apology was that?! Promise you won't put your life in danger, right here and now, promise!"

"I promise, I swear I will never put my life in danger like that again, how does that sound?!" Claus yelled back and as he did, Sky pulled him in for a tight hug.

"Good… you scared me so much back there you know? I don't know what I would've done if I had lost you back there, we need to keep each other safe after all." Sky let out a sigh, her pent-up anger was now released but now she broke down into tears on him, she was emotionally drained, although she was happy to have gotten her team back together while at the same time traumatising them on what she's like when angry.

Claus, didn't say anything back, he was just happy have someone care for him this much that they went out of their way to literally punch some sense into him but at the same time learned how ruthless she is when she's angry also swore to himself to also never piss her off again, he separated himself from Sky and smiled.

"You happy now?"

Sky wiped her tears and smiled back though it was shallow.

"Yep."

Ray poked her head out from behind Sky and approached with one long but curious step towards Claus, her cheeks blushing slightly and looked away.

"So… about the fan thing… was that really true?" She asked, curling her hair with her fingers, remembering his words from that particular night.

"They're true, I am your number one fan I guess..." He replied with all honesty that made Ray hiccup and cover her mouth, shooting a look at Claus, taking a deep breath and recomposing herself.

"Well I guess it can't be helped since I am so beautiful and all, that just means I need to put in more work to make myself more popular." She boasted with a laugh to hide her embarrassment.

The Idol booped Claus' nose and turned back on him with a smile, going to her bed and sat on it playfully, picking up her cards.

Claus was stunned for a moment, not knowing what to say, same with Sky but she just learned to accept that was normal behaviour of Ray.

"Hey, what's going on kids? Your big boy came to me saying you were fighting."

Wulf walked in the room with Wave following closely behind, leaning against the door frame with his arms crossed.

"Oh nothing, I just needed to knock some sense into my teammates, that's all." Sky said, she had the feeling she was about to be scolded by this huntsman.

"Oh, the good old sock and teach em, I used to get that a lot in my training, there's a reason why I don't travel in teams anymore though it was fun while it lasted." Wulf scratched his head, sounding disinterested in the subject.

"Huh? What happened with your team?" The engineer asked curiously.

"Nothing special, I wanted to be on my own and disbanded from my team after an argument, that's all." He said, glancing at Sky and narrowing his eyes closer on Sky, staring down at her.

Sky suddenly became flustered and stepped back, the stare she was receiving was very unwelcome.

"W-what is it?"

"ya know, isn't that plain body suit cold?" He randomly said out of place.

Sky suddenly flared up and took another step back, quickly scanning the room for somewhere to hide.

"W-What do you mean?" She asked, her voice shaking, looking at her clothes, she thought as long as they covered some of her legs and arms along with her main body, she would be fine, she never had a problem with it back at home but that's because she never went out in public very often but now she felt attacked by this man's statement and immediately wanted him gone.

"I'm saying it gets cold around here, plus wouldn't you be attracting some attention with something tight like that too?" he added, it was clear as day, he was perverted.

This was something Sky was very uncomfortable with hearing about, she looked at Claus and Wave who were also looking at her and felt like she was being stared down at from all other her body and leaped for one of the beds, covering herself in the blanket out of pure embarrassment and she felt uncomfortable being around these guys now.

"It's not for me to judge, I just said my opinion really, you can do what you like." Wulf laughed out loud (Though he liked what he was seeing) while everyone else pretty much frowned at him, he was being a jerk to the poor engineer as well as insensitive.

Sky felt creeped out by this huntsman and really wanted him gone.

"You name is Wulf right? What the hell gives you the right to talk to a girl like that?! Do you talk like this to the others?!" Ray snapped at him, marching in front of him and glared up at him.

"Freedom of speech kid, heard of it?" He mocked her.

"I have but you had no right to say that outright to our leader, she's self-conscious you know?! Apologise now!" she screeched at him.

Wulf knew what type of person Ray was and succumbed to her reluctantly.

"Alright, I apologise, I'm sorry if I made you feel like that leader girl, you're a good person, too young for me but I know you'll go far, trust me... well actually when you graduate call me" He said, taking a cigarette out of his pocket but Ray snatched it away with a frown, she hates smoking.

"You're quite harsh, you know, can't a man smoke?"

Wave was about to take action to get Wulf out of the building until he heard a familiar voice

"This building is smoke free just so you know." A low and powerful voice ripped through the room, Wave looked in the direction to where he heard it and saw Gort approach the room with his arm in a cast and his other arm held onto his cane.

"You're the mother goose?" good timing, I was getting bored of these kids, I need to go pick up my weapon anyway, here's my business card, call me if you need my services and also when the little huntress leader graduates." Wulf said, pushing himself off the door frame and looked Gort in the eye, slipping a card into his pocket.

"As much as I owe you for coming to help in this incident, I won't tolerate foul language, assessment or any other offensive behaviour to my offend students." Gort gave a glare, powerful enough to pierce a Grimm, while it didn't intimidate Wulf, it was enough to make him back off as he knew the story of One Strike Gort well and knew well not to mess with him.

"Don't worry I was only giving these kids pointers, I wasn't gonna do anything bad to them, anyway I got a job to do, see ya." Wulf took his leave, giving a wave to Sky and the rest of the team as he left.

Gort took a look at his team, relieved that they were mostly unharmed but felt regret to have them come rescue him.

"I apolo-"

"You don't need to apologise, we are here to help each other, right?" Claus said, nodding at his professor.

"You've got a point there, still I have shamed myself in front of you all and I tend to make amendments for that when we get back, in particular you Claus, you knew what to do and acted rationally to try get the best outcome in your power." Gort said, the shame he felt in failing was a big burden on him.

"But what that huntsman said, do I really dress revealing at all?" Sky asked, still hiding in the blanket.

"I don't really see that, the way you dress is fine Sky, it should not be a concern, the more unique you are, the easier it is to stand out." Gort said, trying not to lower her confidence any more.

"If you want Sky I've got some spare clothes for you to put on while we return to Beacon." Ray offered which Sky was happy to accept that offer.

"When we get back we can discuss that, to think some people act and think like that scares me a little." She said, she wasn't used to the different types of people in Remnant and this was a little scare for her.

"Ahem… the airship will be here in 30 minutes so make sure you're outside in time for that." Gort said, walking out of the room.

"Well no point in worrying about it, let's go." Ray grinned at Sky.

"Mhm, let's go"

Back in Beacon, Gort left to report to Ozpin and had sent SCRW back to their rooms to rest, the whole incident would be recorded into the academy where there had been similar instances of someone like Maven who had been targeting mainly girls and the investigation to capture him is still underway.

Sky had been trying on different clothes made by Ray, wanting to change her gear to something more for civilisation rather than clothes that are just for the workshop while Claus accompanied Wave to the hospital to visit Anabelle.

Sky came out of the changing area that she had built in the room so that the girls would have privacy when changing instead of going to the bathroom each time, she was wearing some white trainers with light blue ankle socks, some grey shorts with a white belt with a gold buckle, a light limp shirt with a wrench print on her chest and a golden coloured bracelet on her wrist to compliment her look.

"How… do I look?" She asked nervously as Ray inspected her.

"As jealous as I am, you actually look good in that." Ray sighed in her annoyance that the clothes that she helped Sky buy suited her so well with her looks.

"From now on I'll do a swap of different outfits sometimes to get used to being in the streets more and to find my Ideal style, after what that huntsman said, I'm really not comfortable with being in that body suit in public anymore, I guess I'll only wear it for when I do work on my machines and for training missions." Sky admitted sadly, her cheeks going red remembering that moment, but she shook it off.

"If I'm honest it did stand out quite a bit among us all but that itself is a charm no one can replicate." Ray said but she didn't mind how Sky looked because it was a part of her job to look like a mechanic/engineer, she also felt like she needed to add something so Sky would still give that impression, so she brought out a little box.

"Before I give you this I must ask, should you really be doing this now? We just got back and I'm exhausted, shouldn't we be resting?"

"Sorry, I'm used to working long hours, so I didn't really think about it."

"No matter let's finish this so I can sleep her hours, anyway, here"

"What's this?"

"Open it"

Sky looked curiously at the blue box with a red ribbon on it, she undid the ribbon and took the top to reveal a pair of fingerless gloves and large gear hair clip on top of them. She slipped the gloves on and put the clip in her hair to complete her makeover, walking over to the mirror and smiled at her new appearance she was proud of.

"I look great! Thank you Ray!" Sky ran over to hug the poor Idol briefly and looked over her new outfit, feeling satisfied with it.

"it's no problem, you just got to keep up with the current style, didn't anyone tell you on your fashion sense?"

"Not really, I never went out a lot, I would usually stay at home unless I accompany my brother to the stores sometimes to help with getting parts for the things he makes." Sky said with a smile.

"Your brother, he makes all that stuff?" Ray asked.

"Yeah… but he's missing, like there are people still looking for him, so I can just believe in that for now, but I can't stay sad forever, Jet wanted me to make the most of my 4 years here, so I'll have to do my best." Sky nodded to herself and took a deep breath.

"And when we complete our training, hopefully he will be found and if now, we will find him ourselves."

"Exactly, he's really, really strong so he would likely be waiting for me to find him, like a big game of tag you know?" The engineer now giggling to herself, thinking more about the positives than the negatives.

"I like how you view things you know? But enough of that let's get the guys back and show them off your new look." Ray smirked.

As they were about to leave, a guy with blue long blue braided hair and dressed in a similar fashion to Gort except he didn't wear a jacket, it was a black waist coat, knocked on the door that was open.

"Hello, I heard I could find the members of SCRW here." He announced.

"Hello? Well my name is Sky and I'm the leader, what do you need?"

"My name is Shun… I'm professor Gort's son that you went on a mission with recently…" He spoke nervously, his voice being surprisingly high pitch despite his father sounding so low.

"Ooooh… I didn't know he had a son, what can I do for you?"

"Well… I just came to say thank you for saving my dad, I really mean it!" He bowed his head and yelled out, forgetting his indoor voice that startled the two.

Sky just stood there unable to say anything for a moment but regained her composure.

"It was nothing, he was our professor so of course we had to help him." She said with a smile.

Shun looked up at Sky, noticing her outfit and went red and looked away.

"Well I'm a part of team STAR, we are a second-year team and well… if you need any help, d-don't be afraid to ask me… have a nice day." He said and left the room suddenly, leaving the two confused about what just happened.

"Well he does seem nice enough at least." Ray said, focusing on sorting out her makeup from her bed.

"Although I didn't expect our professor to have his son at this academy though." Ray sat back on her bed and looked up at the ceiling.

"Well it's an interesting thing to know anyway" Sky said.

"But more than anything I can't wait for the other teams to get back, so I can talk to them about their different adventures." Sky's eyes lit up as she loves hearing about the tales of others from the many tales she was told when she was younger.

Professor Mint suddenly barged herself in the room as if she was looking for someone, startling Sky again.

"You haven't seen here have you?" She asked, referring to Claus.

"You surprised me… No, he's gone to the hospital."

"Is that so? Okay, thanks and I'm glad you all came back safely." She expressed her gratitude and left the room in a hurry.

"What was that about?" Ray asked.

"I don't know but she seemed to be in a rush." Sky shrugged her shoulders and sat down on her bed.

"Hey, do you want to try some makeup for a change?" Ray offered, holding out some foundation.

"no thanks."

The engineer went to look out of the window to notice an Atlas airship flying over the academy, she yelped and fall onto her backside upon realising it belonged to Atlas.

"What's wrong Sky?!" Ray leaped from her bed to look over at Sky.

"It's Atlas! What are they doing here?" Sky exclaimed, grabbing a hold of Ray tightly and shaking her around like doll, the Idol, grabbed the engineer's shoulders and forced her to stop shaking her.

"They always appear when a large event is about to take place, don't you know that? They are like the lead security force in Remnant!"

"Aww I don't want them to be here!" Sky ran to the window again and look up to the airship, soon noticing there were more than one of them, making her extremely anxious as she really doesn't like Atlas.

"Why? Do you have a past with them or something?" Ray asked, now curious.

"Uhh… something like that ahehe… though my brother knows all about it, I was just always told to never trust them"

Suddenly a loud crash could be heard from the outside, Sky seeing pillars of smoke started rising from Vale, provoking her instincts to suggest something bad is happening in the city.

She dashed to pick up her weapon that's in carry form and equips it to her side and grabs a hold of Ray telling her to follow.

"Why are you dragging me so suddenly?!" She asks, picking up her weapons on the way out of the dorm.

"Something's happened in Vale, something really bad, we gotta go!" Sky yelled out, letting go of Ray and running on ahead, the Idol now picking up speed to catch up to her, she decided not to ask anything else and just followed her.

"Shouldn't we call the boys, so we know where they are?" Ray asked.

"They took a GPS with them, it's fine." Sky added, Ray was taking back a bit now knowing that Sky has made GPS' without telling her.

Meanwhile in Vale, Claus and Wave found themselves surrounded by various Grimm on their way back to Beacon, consisting of Beowolves, Creeps and Ursa majors, then noticing that there was a large hole where a team was laid on top, from assumptions it was team RWBY from the colour schemes of 4 girls among the wreckage.

Whatever they have been up to, it's caused a lot of trouble here now.

Claus raised up his weapons and went back to back with Wave who had his bow out, pulling on the string with a red tipped arrow.

"It's time for a quick side quest." Claus said with a smirk.

"I agree." Wave nodded.


	9. Chapter 9- Welcoming Party

Chapter 9- Welcome party.

As of this moment, Grimm invaded the Vale, nobody knows when they came but it was for certain because of a hole that emerged into the city when a train suddenly burst out of the ground with team RWBY on it and with that Grimm began pouring out and terrorizing the citizens, destroying buildings and wreaking havoc while the few huntsmen and huntresses that were around at that point were fighting as hard as they could to minimise the damage.

And in the middle of this mess, Claus and Wave were on their way back from visiting Anabelle at the hospital till they were stopped by the Grimm and are now in the midst of fighting to keep them from spreading panic any further.

There was a civilian trapped in a building with several Beowolves surrounding it, Claus leaped through the air to land a blow on the head of one of the Beowolves, then proceeded to grab its fur and throw it into the other Grimm and shot several blasts from his Tonfa's into the crowd in which they all evapourated.

The civilian walked out of the building slowly while darting his attention around to make sure there isn't any other Grimm around till he looked at Claus with a worried look.

"I-is it safe now?"

Claus just simply nodded then he looked over to Wave who was shooting arrows at any Grimm that tried to get close.

"Wave can I leave them to you?" He yelled, spotting a clear route he could take.

"Yeah, Sky and Ray should be here any moment now." Wave knew about the GPS he had taken and just hoped the girls caught onto the situation fast enough, now he was dodging the Grimm's attacks and adopting a hit and run strategy as Grimm go down one by one.

"I'm counting on you." Claus ran through the streets with the man, keeping a sharp eye out for any other Grimm.

He never thought he would be doing something like this, saving people like this since he joined the academy, he just wanted to quietly do what he was tasked to do throughout the years but that's not an option anymore since he feels like Sky's and Gort's actions have influenced his mind to take more action now, plus if he did nothing Sky would likely chew him out for it.

After a bit of running, Claus ran into some Atlas soldiers that were taking care of some small Grimm where there was a large mech with them providing fire support.

Claus felt his heart freeze as he approached them but soon calmed down when they approached him and civilian.

"You're a student, aren't you?" One of the soldiers asked, obviously more interested in Claus than the civilians.

"Y-yes, can you help him?" Claus ran over to the soldiers with the civilian following close behind.

"We'll get him to safety, as you need to too, this place isn't for kids." The soldier ordered, turning his back on Claus and making way with the man who thanked him before leaving, it was an odd interaction but now was not the time to think about it further.

He began running back till he was stopped as 3 Creeps dug out of the ground and focused their attention on him.

"Oh, come on, really?" Claus cursed, holding his weapon steady and charging forward to go for a straight hit on one of them, the Grimm just hopped out of his way and now had him surrounded in a quick moment.

The Creep behind him went for a tail whip but Claus noticed and waltzed out of the way of it's attack and landed a solid strike on the Grimm with the tonfa, letting loose an explosion, instantly evaporating the Grimm.

The other two Creeps leaped at Claus and he thought to be clever and stick one tonfa each into their gaping mouths and send a blast through them, while destroying them, heavily damaging his aura too but he didn't care as he carried on running, looking out for any signs of trouble until he arrived back to where Wave was and well… he was struggling but he managed to pair up with another huntsman, not knowing that it was Shun, Gort's son.

He fought the Grimm with a lance decorated with red feathers with bits of decoration along the shaft, dodging then striking Grimm with a quick but lethal thrust while Wave covered his back, slicing through Grimm with his weapon and even managing to grab a Beowolf by the skull and stabbing through what would be where the heart was.

But as they fought, more and more Grimm came to surround them.

Claus marched forward, jumping in the air and stomped down on an approaching Ursa, planting his weapon onto it's neck and releasing a blast although it wasn't enough to stop it as it grabbed Claus' leg and threw him into the area where the other two were.

"One way to make an entrance!" Wave grunted, currently locked in with 2 Beowolves but breaks free and cuts them down.

"Thanks, but let's begin the killing!" Claus had a smile on his face as he rushed forward knock away a Creep and then shot a rocket at some Beowolves running towards Wave and managing to separating them, Wave quickly changed to bow form and released 3 powerful arrows that ripped through the Grimm's body like it was nothing, taking out about 4 Beowolves and the 1 Ursa that Claus failed to kill.

"I'm guessing your teammate?" Shun looked back briefly before going back to focus on the Grimm in front.

"Yeah, where's your team anyway?" Wave asked, releasing more of his power arrows.

"Not far, I just noticed you were in a little trouble, so I split to help."

With the last line said, the last grimm in the area was taken down after a few quick slashes from Shun but there was no time to rest as everyone needed to go search for more Grimm or any people in trouble.

"I'm gonna go back now, I'm Shun of team STAR, nice to meet you." Shun turned his back on the team and ran to find his team, forgetting to stop to hear the names of those he helped.

"He sure, doesn't slow down." Claus said, looking around, checking that there isn't any other Grimm.

"We'll probably see him later, come on." Wave ran off in a direction between a couple of buildings with Claus running along behind.

"Ray come on, this way!" Sky slid into an alleyway, running down with her weapon in its shorter, sword form while Ray followed on closely from behind, panting heavily for she was not used to running so much.

Since the two landed in in Vale, they had been running for at least a mile now, making their way to Claus and Wave, Sky leading the charge, being able to pierce through multiple small Grimm with her lance without a problem but whenever she went into a smaller space, she always changed her weapon into the sword form where she slices through the Grimm in her way, leaving poor Ray without any to slaughter which she silently appreciates.

The two had been running in the areas with the least Grimm while also avoiding Atlas soldiers and machines as best they could, Sky wouldn't tell Ray why she doesn't like Atlas, not for now anyway while this situation is going on.

The two came out into a large open space, stopping to see a huge pile of Grimm of various types they had not seen or bigger versions of what they had seen, Ursa's, Beowolves, even some large snake ones that were named King Taijitu and lastly a lot of Creeps as they were fighting several students from the academy or the Atlas soldiers. Sky looked down at her scroll to see where Claus and Wave were and noticed they were pretty close.

"Sky! Is that you?" Claus yelled out from atop a building, kicking down a Beowolf, Wave stood next to him and leaped down, digging his weapon into an Ursa's head, then violently yanking it out, cutting down any nearby Grimm unfortunate enough to be around him.

"Yes! We got work to do" The engineer, got her weapon into lance form and glared at the advancing Grimm with a confident smile.

"Hold on… I stil-"

"Let's go slowpoke!"

Sky didn't listen to the exhausted Ray as she charged ahead, slicing through a line of Creeps, cocking a round into her rifle chamber, stabbing into an Ursa and firing a large hole through it's body, grabbing onto it's falling body and does some athletics while swinging her weapon around, striking at the Beowolves and creeps that were surrounding her and finished on a stance to show off with her weapon across her back as she stood triumphant on the downed Ursa and looked at Ray with a smile and gave a wink to annoy her before going for the other Grimm, using her acrobatics and lance to make quick work of the Grimm.

Ray eventually got her breath back and brought out her weapon, Golden Carousel, splitting the weapon in half and took a few steps forward, allowing herself to be surrounded by Creeps and in response she begins singing, a voice that resembles angels coming down to give their aid as her semblance gives off the mirage to the Grimm of light figures of Ray flying through the air, leaving all of them nothing but confused and dazzled by the light along with them seeming to move much more slowly. Along with the singing to back it up all the while the smaller Grimm begin to evaporate away while Ray quickly finishes off the larger ones with quick and smooth slashes, showing her elegance, a form to even make the best huntsman and huntresses to take note of her as she finishes off a large number of Grimm just as her song ends, clasping her hands together at her chest with a smile, looking at the spectacle of what she made.

"Thank you for listening~"

As the Grimm are being contained and fought off in a concentration with RWBY, SCRW, JNPR (Although only Sky and Ray met Pyrrha out of the team properly during the earlier shower scene), Professor Port and Doctor Oobleck were out setting the Grimm ablaze and now were getting their numbers down now that the Grimm were not coming out of the tunnels.

Now Atlas airships were closing in on the area, sending down their troops to tackle the Grimm and providing air fire support, while Sky didn't enjoy them being around, she at least appreciated them killing the Grimm.

Now a smaller airship hovered overhead and down came another team, a girl with brown rabbit ears, the other girl with a beret and a spikes case with some nice-looking sunglasses, a guy with red short but wavy hair and lastly a guy who seemed even taller than Wave with a huge sword that's only just shorter than him, they spread out swiftly dealing with more Grimm.

Wave leaped through the air with a spiked Ursa Major in his hand and smashed it into the ground taking out a few Grimm around him and came up by the large huntsman with the sword, they didn't say a word together as with their strength together, they destroyed the ground around them by slamming their weapons into the ground, creating a large shock, catching the Grimm in it.

Sky stopped to look at the new teams weapons, while the swords didn't interest her, the sunglasses girl's case and the rabbit Faunus' case interested her by far the most as they seemed to be conserving it for some odd reason until the sunglasses woman approached a large Beowolf and beat it down with the case without much effort before transforming it into a large minigun and shooting the it and the deathstalker behind it into pieces, wowing Sky to where her eyes could literally shine like freshly polished diamonds, thinking after this situation unfolds, she has to go talk to this team.

Now was not the time however…

Glynda stomped through the streets, taking out the Grimm that dared to go near her with her wand and grabbed Sky by the back of her shirt and dragged her along, knowing she can use her semblance to help plug up the hole.

"You're going to assist me." She snarled, Sky tried to resist not wanting to rip the new clothes she only just got from Ray but quickly gave up.

"Hold on, how?!"

"We're going to plug up that hole."

Glynda let go and pointed her wand at the hole and the rubble around her started moving towards the hole, Sky put her hands together and analysed the hole quickly, using her semblance to illuminate any rocks that Glynda wasn't touching.

"Assemble!" She yelled out and the rocks swiftly moved with Glynda's, while they were a little heavy, it was nothing compared to what happened in the valley, now with the hole being completely plugged up so no more Grimm could get in.

Sky sat down on the floor, holding her weapon in her shoulder and let out a sigh.

"We have quite similar semblances don't you think?" The engineer cracked a smile, looking up at the professor.

"Quite… yes."

"Sky we are- when did you change?" Wave approached her and was taken away by her new outfit, not knowing where to look, trying to hide a slight blush.

"You like it?" She wore a cheeky grin, she could see his reaction and wanted to press on to see how Wave reacts.

Wave took another look and tried to calm himself down but subconsciously kept trying to look away which was just amusing to Sky.

"So?"

"Y-yeah… it looks good."

"Thank you, I'm gonna try on a few outfits for awhile so you better give me your opinions, yes?" Sky leaned forwards, trying to get a closer look at him, standing up with a curious look, noticing Wave's embarrassed face as he looks away, he clearly wasn't good when it comes to girls asking for opinions on their looks.

"y-yeah…okay."

"I'll be counting on you!"

With the incident dealt with and the teams being sent back to Beacon, Sky already ran off to find the team with the minigun user while Ray was sat with Pyrrha in the library, studying together about weapon maintenance.

"Hey, why do people with weapons with wood have to often treat them with oils and stuff?" Ray asked, curling her lip to fit her pen between her nose and top lip while looking in a book.

"It's so they don't get mould on them or absorb the aroma's that are around them, it makes them give off quite an unpleasant smell." Pyrrha didn't look up from her notes, comparing multiple books together.

"Thanks."

"So, did you watch Jaune in the fight earlier?" The spartan girl asked, reminding Ray of the conversation in the shower room where Ray was talking to Sky about JNPR and how weak Jaune was in the team.

Ray jumped upon remembering it and was reluctant to answer but slowly got there.

"He killed that Ursa… right?"

"All by himself"

"He really has improved I guess?"

"Is he still as weak as you said he is?" Pyrrha was making the situation uncomfortable now for Ray, pressing on her questions, sliding her eyes up from her books without changing her expressions.

"N-no he has improved like you said, also what's with that look?" Ray was more bothered about being looked down upon by Pyrrha, mainly because she was more popular than her and Ray felt like Pyrrha was using that to get stand above her which wasn't the case, but this was Ray's basic misunderstanding.

"It's nothing, I just don't like anyone talking down about my team members after all."

"Yeah sure it was a one-time thing, we all gossip you know? I'm learning how to be more considerate now for others for both my image and also for someone's." Ray admits, distracting herself from her notes.

"Glad to hear."

A man with green wavy hair and wore a red scarf and a blue tunic walked into the library, the one who met Ray back when the incident at the valley happened, he seemed to recognise her and walked over and sat over with her and Pyrrha, Ray looked unamused as he came over as she saw him as one of those "player" types.

"Yo, we meet again and oh my you're studying with the famous Nikos? How lucky."

"What do you want?" Ray spoke with a monotone voice, focusing back on the book and taking notes silently.

"Come on don't be harsh now, you don't even know my name." The guy persisted.

"Then say it." The Idol remaining cold.

"It's Tungsten Trifas at your service."

"I guess it will be worth listening him out." Pyrrha said, putting her books down.

Ray felt defeated, placing the book down and looked up at Tungsten to know what he's gonna say.

"I just wanted to see how your mission went considering what happened last time." He said with a cheeky grin, but he seemed actually concerned for Ray.

"I guess you could say it went fine, we solved a mystery and finally was able to activate my aura." The idol said with a confident smile like she won first prize in a competition although that statement didn't stop Tungsten from cracking a chuckle that flipped Ray's switch, now glaring at him.

"What's so funny?"

"Nothing much, I just never thought there was someone who didn't know how to activate their aura was here at this academy." Tungsten chuckled a little more.

Ray, feeling mocked, stood from her seat and was about to go tell him one until Pyrrha put her hand over her mouth and spoke instead.

"Not everyone at this academy comes with the same amount of training and may not have had to rely on their aura till then so please try to keep your comments to yourself thank you."

Tungsten didn't have a comeback but instead turned his back to the girls and before he left.

"I didn't expect to get lectured again today, anyway glad you're fine, let's talk again at a better time, maybe we have dinner together." He dropped a card by the girl's tables and took his leave, leaving the library in silence.

Ray removed Pyrrha's hand and sat down on her chair, giving off one large annoyed sigh and looked at the card with Tungsten's contact info on it.

"Again?" Ray recalled the words the man said before taking his leave.

"Don't pay attention to him, there are always bound to be people like him in the academy, don't let it bother you."

"Yeah… whatever." Ray took the card anyway, thinking it may be useful later, she checked her scroll to see if anyone messaged her, noticing a message from Sky, assuming she's finished with chatting up that team until…

When she opened the message, it was a photo of Sky tied up in several pieces of rope, strapped to a chair and the message below reading.

"Come pick up your mail at your door."

Ray yelped out loud upon reading the message, almost panicking but gets scowled at by the other people in the library for being too loud and now looks down embarrassed with Pyrrha looking over at the scroll with a concerned look.

"You should… really go check on her."

"Thanks… I will… let's study later okay?"

"Sure, I'm here all afternoon."

Ray packed up her things into her bag and quickly hurried back to her dorm to find Sky in the middle of the room, still tied up in the multiple ropes with what seems to be Wave behind her, trying to undo the ropes, the Idol couldn't do much but just stare in surprise in how Sky even got into this situation.

"So…"

"Don't ask I'll explain while you help get me out of this and please… close the door." Sky said, her face was bright red.

Before Ray went to help Sky, she took out her phone with a smirk and started taking photos to remember this moment for years ago while Sky yelled at her to not take photos and to stop.

Now after a few fun photos that will never be forgotten later, Ray helped Wave with undoing the knots.

"Who tied these, they are so hard…"

"You're telling me." Wave agreed with Ray as even he struggled.

"Well Coco did them while I was held down against my will by that big guy." Sky began with the second part sounding misleading, making Ray leap up in surprise, the engineer realising what she just said and went as red as a strawberry.

"Not like that! Like-"

Sky was interrupted when the door opened with Claus walking in, currently stunned at what he is seeing and pauses for a moment before taking a quick photo without saying anything.

"Nooooo!" Sky was on the verge of tears from the humiliation she was facing, feeling like she could just die right now or if possible, erase everyone's scrolls and memories.

"Get explaining then." Claus said, stood waiting.

"At least help!" Ray called out, trying not to be too loud for Wave's sake.

"You know…" Claus pulled out a knife from his pockets and cut up the ropes, letting the captive Sky free as she leaped from her chair throwing her arms in the air, waltzing over to look at her team before finally falling back on herself, finally doing her explanation, not looking at anyone in the eye since she is embarrassed to admit.

"Sooo… I was looking at Coco's weapon as I was most interested in how such a big weapon fitted in that little case so I wanted to break it down and look inside it… she didn't like the idea of me doing that so I went onto Velvet's case cause I wanted to know how that went, I didn't really listen that well cause I was too invested in looking at how their weapons worked until I accidentally hit the Velvet, the rabbit Faunus in the face with one of my tools, Coco went wild and umm… I ended up just like this." Sky said, tilting her head to the side and smiled nervously while everyone else gave her the face of "How is that not surprising?"

"Well you got what was coming to you…" Wave broke the silence, rubbing his neck.

"Can't let you out of our sight…" Ray sat back on her bed, almost disappointed in her leader.

"Oh, come on guys, Claus?" Sky looked at him for a little something uplifting, but he just turned his head to ignore her.

"Guys…"

Sky got to her knees feeling brutally betrayed by her teammates, she could cry at this moment but managed to hold the tears back, well just barely.

 **I apologise for the super long delay, I moved house recently and well had no internet for the past 2 weeks so I couldn't do anything as I became a caveman, this is the second to last chapter of SCRW so let's do this at full pace and excitement!**

 **For updates in future if anything happens, follow our page Tiger Wolf on facebook, see ya next week!**


	10. Chapter 10(Extra)- Unexpected Dates

Chapter 10- Unexpected Dates

It was the weekend at Beacon Academy and this was going to be a weekend to be remembered more an any other because…

"I've been asked out on a date!" Sky yelled from reading a letter she had received this morning while sat on her bed, it was morning, Ray being the only one in the room, combing her hair and doing her make up before being startled at Sky's yelling and rushing over to the engineer's side with the surprised look that she doesn't show normally, looking over the letter with only one eye of eyeliner done while the other eye looked like she had been punched in the face.

"W-wait? You got asked out?!" Ray snatched the letter and began reading it thoroughly, her eyes scanning through the words with intense concentration.

"Hey, give it back, don't read it!" Sky reached up to try take it back, she thought it was rude to read other people's letters, plus it was embarrassing but Ray kept dodging her attempts to grab the letter until she was done reading it and threw it back to her.

"Hmph, he sounds like quite the loser, what's with those drawings? And not to mention "I've been interested in you since we met but I never had the courage to talk to you" What the hell is tha-"Before Ray could finish her sentence she had received quite a strong slap from Sky who was visibly upset with what the Idol was saying.

 _Whoops, did it again…_ Ray knew she hit a trigger point, not the first time she did this.

"Don't make fun of him! Don't you know how much courage it takes to send a love letter to someone you don't you?!"

"Why are you so angry? Sure, it takes courage, but won't it be easier to try get to know someone first?"

"That's where you don't understand! Not everyone can be confident like you and I'm angry because I hate seeing other people's confidence being trampled on…" Sky took a step back, holding the letter close to her, looking down in another direction, Ray felt like she went too far at this point and thought to apologise, mainly so she won't get another hit that could be more than a slap, glancing at a wrench on Sky's worktop.

"I'm sorry, I wasn't thinking… so aren't you going to get ready?" Ray said, putting one of her hands on her hips, sticking her hips out a slightly.

"You can make it up to me by changing your attitude about people and maybe being more considerate but for now… help me choose an outfit please, you're the expert."

Ray felt offended by the words Sky spat out, plus the fact that it had nothing to do with getting changed for a date, as much as she wanted to say something back, it's likely that Sky will come back with something to pierce into her head, mentally and physically knowing what Sky can be like when angered, so she held off.

"Why don't you wear the clothes I gave you the day we came back? Add some sunglasses on your head and you'll be the swan in a group of geese." Ray pointed towards Sky's open wardrobe where the clothes she mentioned are hanging, glaring at the body suit Sky still wore frequently, she seems to have a personal connection since she's so used to working in it.

"You really think so? I thought of going out in my usual outfit since it shows me as I usually am."

Ray questioned that thought, putting her finger by her brow for a moment before putting it back down and looked at Sky, noticing the suit has a tight fit but is also flexible, understanding it's good for work but also knows it's not a good idea for a date as it makes her assets stand out quite a lot… well to tell the truth Ray is just jealous of Sky in that regard, She then pointing at the other clothes in the wardrobe with a huff.

"Well you said you was going to try different bits of clothing for a good time, right? It's a good idea to go through your options, plus what you're wearing now isn't that suitable for this sort of thing, you really don't go out in public don't you?"

"I don't… that's why I asked you" Sky scoffed and dragged the clothes out and went into an improvised changing curtain she made.

"Do you remember when you have to meet him?" Ray asked, returning to do her make up once again.

"It's 1pm at the statue outside Beacon!"

"And it's 11am right now so I'd be quick and get a light meal before going, it will be likely he has eaten at that time."

"Okay!" Sky responded, her mood lightening again as she went to go get changed, humming cheerfully.

Ray knows that Sky get's ready very quickly so only having two hours to get ready is like next to nothing for her, though for some trivia on Ray her record on getting ready is just about two hours and 10 minutes.

It was ticking towards 12:55pm on Sky's slightly rusted silver pocket watch as she leaned against the statue waiting for her date to come, she wore what Ray recommended to her on the day after coming back from Bozu, with the addition to borrowing some sunglasses with pink frames and blue tinted shades that she wore on her head and one of Ray's many handbags, a sparkling light pink bag with gems only lining the flap of the bag as it hangs from Sky's shoulder, reaching down to her shorts, while it would be fun to question how she could afford so many handbags but thinking about it now would give her a headache.

She was wearing the light pink T-shirt with a wrench print on it, the bottom was tied up in a knot, revealing a part of her midriff along with some blue short, shorts kept in place by a white belt with a gold coloured buckle and white trainers (Sky had to buy her own), she had the cog clip in her hair and tried on a little foundation after much pestering from the persistent Idol which hid any kind of strain Sky's face may had been showing from the past few nights.

While she hasn't told anyone she had been having nightmares about Maven with all the events that happened in the circus tent, she could hear his laugh and at the end she saw herself tied up in his wires before eventually being torn apart which then she would awaken from that dream, that same dream had been recurring a few times but she didn't want to make everyone else worry, especially with what happened to Claus since he took the wires with full force.

Time ticked slowly to 1pm with doubt starting filling Sky's mind as she grew more and more anxious the more, she thought about what this person could be.

Could this person act shy at first but turn out to be violent as she got to know them? Could they be a potential stalker? What if they don't look nice? What if she's been lured into a trap? Could it be someone she met before?

She didn't know but she told herself that she needs to follow through this so that the letter the person sent wasn't for nothing, knowing the Vale mailing system is not great anyway.

"Umm… Sky?" Someone called out to her in a shy, mumbled voice.

Sky shot her look over to see a girl wearing some blue trainers along with some blue denim jeans that were frayed at the bottom along with a white shirt that has an eagle silhouette embedded on it with short orange sleeves with, she had medium length light yellow hair with white streaks reaching to her upper back and wore a snapback backwards, she had freckles and her hair covered one eye.

"Sam…Daisy?" Sky looked at the letter she had received and looked back at her, she wasn't expecting it to be a girl to go on a date, Sam was in her class all last semester, the two never really talked but Sky recognised her as she always took notice of those that had a unique feature, in Sam's case it was always the snapback she always wore.

"Hehe… not what you're expecting right? She curled her hair shyly; her voice was a little raspy but easy to understand.

Sky drew a complete blank on the inside, she had been expecting to be meeting a man and thought of many scenarios but never expected this outcome till she realised.

 _Sam is a reversable name!_

Though now was not the time panic, she had to see this day through and be as normal as possible… she hopes anyway.

"Well… I'd be lying if I said I wasn't." Sky was honest but worried that Sam would take that offensively.

"So… umm… How are you feeling?" The snapback girl said, Sky realising that she's socially awkward and is not good at leading the conversation, so she decided to try start one, if she can.

"I'm fine thanks, so from reading this you were always scared to talk to me?"

 _Sky you idiot! Go die in a hole!_ She screamed to herself, now anxiously awaiting Sam's reply.

"Oh! Umm… you see… uh, I was never good at talking to people, I never thought highly of myself, so I wanted to come to this academy to change that… the fact I feel this way towards girls makes things harder, so I find it hard to open up." Sam was caught off guard and mumbled the rest of her lines like she's reciting the great novel of mumbles, showing a confused expression under her bright red blushing.

"Hmm… that's understandable, don't worry about it, like I am super easy to talk to, so you could always try get my attention if you ever needed help or anything." Sky smiled brightly towards Sam to try help her feel better, albeit a little forced.

"it's not that easy when you're like me thinking "What if" Plus when I see you with the other girl, I get so scared… "then Sam's voice got lower and sounding a little more threatening with her last couple of words

"even jealous"

"Ray… well nevermind her, shall we get going? We can talk along the way." Sky said, even though she's not interested in dating other girls thought to hang out with Sam to get to know her a bit more, also telling her she's not interested now would only destroy her confidence more, so she needs to be sensitive around her though she can't help be worried about that blood thirsty sounding comment at the end.

The two took a ride into Vale and walked around the shopping streets and markets, Sky was mainly taking the lead, going into dessert stores to sample the sweets that caught her eye, squealing in the sweet flavours and any stores where she could get equipment and tools from although she never bought anything, then talked about Professor Mint and how annoying she can be when it comes to homework and being sent to her office.

Sam eventually warmed up and started engaging in conversations more, the two girls sharing jokes and gossip about each other teams, turns out she's part of a team called MOOD, using Sam's last name to fill the D in the name, the other team members was Martha, Oceania and Orick and they seemed like a very supportive team since they would know about Sam's preference, hell Martha gave Sam the confidence to even write the letter.

Leaving another clothing shop, Sky had bought a neck scarf that had a blue and yellow striped design.

Sam trailed behind but finally got the courage to decide where to go next.

She grabbed Sky by the wrist and told her to follow her, to Sky's surprise, she didn't mind it since she was literally dragging Sam around the whole place before.

The two went into a book store and Sam picked out a book from the shelves in teen fiction isle, the book had an illustration of a farm in the middle of a wheat field with the title "Beyond the farm" and pushing it onto Sky in which she took hold and looked at the cover in curiosity.

"It's my favourite book… it's about a boy wanting to live bigger than being a farmhand to his mother and father but they don't want him to leave, they want him to inherit the farm and along the way the boy meets a girl that will help him achieve his dreams and maybe be the love he was secretly hoping for and maybe she can help him achieve what he wants to reach… it's a really good read." Sam blurted out, looking away shyly but glancing at Sky occasionally to see her reaction.

Sky looked at the book and read the blurb, it was exactly like how Sam described it, she could relate with the boy from what she read since she mainly worked in the workshop with Jet mainly just helping out really and then remembered her days in Atlas though they were vague but she specifically always remembered being told she could never leave the house, well that's all she could remember anyway before she moved, remembering it was quite limiting there so she gracefully accepted the book.

"I'll give it a read, thanks." She showed a smile that made Sam delighted and squeal slightly.

"Really? That will be really good, I'll have someone to talk about the book with now, yay!" She said in delight, doing a slight hop in excitement, her smile being one thing Sky thought she could not forget for a long time.

Having bought the book now and the two were on the way to this café Sam said she wanted to go stop at and so the two had a little conversation about how awkward sharing a room with guys can be along the way, Sam seeming more expressive and more willing to talk now much to Sky's delight.

As it turns out she was mainly scared to approach Sky because her teammates looked violent and quite scary even though that wasn't true but at the same time no one could blame her if she saw a guy over 7ft always around Sky, one bitchy teammate and one that looks mysterious although Sky now had the opportunity to clarify what her team was really like.

The two visited one more clothing store and then they went to the café to sit down on a table for two by the window, Sam ordered a latte that came in the standard white coffee cup while Sky got a strawberry cheesecake and a milkshake and happily indulged in eating the cake, her cheeks puffing up as she happily ate the cake.

"Sooo… the blond girl… Ray isn't that horrible then?" Sam asked shyly, looking down at her latte, debating when it was the right time to drink out of it without seeming rude.

"Like she has her flaws don't get me wrong and she's quick to get frustrated but she's honest and really if you manage to step up to her a little she soon backs down not to mention she has fantastic fashion sense, she helped me pick out these clothes for today as you can see…" Sky felt embarrassed for admitting, looking up at Sam, seeing that she looks a bit relived and continued eating the rest of the cake although realising since Ray wanted to be an Idol she would need a good reputation, she's clearly failing at that.

"Ah yeah… I've only seen you in the beacon uniform and your work suit." Sam took a sip out of her cup, her eyes widening to how good the latte tasted and took another sip, revealing a glowing smile.

"Work suit… so that's what everyone calls it…" On the inside since the incident with Wulf, Sky was wondering what everyone thought of her body suit but it being called a work suit, fitted her and felt pleased with that, though the thought that Sam may have been stalking her came to light but then remembered everyone always has at least two outfits they change into for combat practice.

"And so… if you don't mind me asking…" Sam shyly looked at Sky in the eye, shuffling her arms under the table and her cheeks growing red, the engineer knew what was coming, her intuition was telling her.

"You… you're not into other girls, are you?"

Sky stiffened up, even her hair strands straightened up, not expecting Sam to bring up this so early on even though she felt it coming, she thought for a moment for the best way to turn her down and just thought to go for it.

"I was afraid you might ask this… I'm sorry but I'm not But-"

"I see… I guess me assuming was-"

"Don't be ridiculous" Sky slammed her hands on the table and yelled, catching the attention of the customers and the staff in the café for a moment and startling Sam, noticing this, she retreated slightly to try not draw any more attention, but she didn't want Sam to put herself down and then went to quickly forget about the attention she brought to herself.

"Huh?!"

"It takes so much courage to send someone a letter and to express yourself, especially if it's someone of the same gender and really because of that, I respect you." Sky said, bringing out the letter.

"Y-you respect me?" Sam was confused, she believed she had done nothing to deserve that.

"Yeah silly, I really wanted to know more about you and today I had fun you know? Talking with you and gossiping about our teammates and about classes, you really are a fun person you know?" Sky shot a bright smile and then went over to her milkshake once she finished with the cheesecake.

Sam looked down and clenched her chest, the amount of emotions going through her was more than she could handle, she was surprised, sad and happy along with many other emotions she can't express, while her team is supportive, nobody ever got mad at her for her sake, nor had anyone said they respected her and then eventually tears starting streaming down her face and she broke down on the table, Sky thinking she said something bad and ran over to comfort her.

"Are you okay?! Did I say something bad? I'm sorry!" Sky looked up at the customers looking over at her again and felt the urgent need to calm Sam down and was panicking on the inside, she honestly didn't know what to do, her head went dizzy and embarrassment rose up through her like a volcano about to erupt.

"No… I'm just so happy! Nobody said they respected me like that… no one reached out to my, even after rejecting my feelings!" Sam blurted out and continued crying, a waitress with long black hair and bright orange eyes came over to with a tissue and looked genuinely worried.

"Sam… you're causing a scene… what happened?" The waitress whispered, handing a tissue over to Sam, seeming like the two knew each other and shot a glare at Sky, felt worried that this was going to go downhill very fast.

"Don't look at me, I didn't mean any harm!"

"Martha… She did nothing wrong… I'm just so happy right now." Turns out the waitress was one of Sam's team members that was a genuine shock to Sky that kept panicking on the inside.

Martha, the waitress has moved Sam behind the counter to talk to her in a more private space than by the table

"Even though she rejected you?!" Martha pressed on.

"Even if she did, she still accepted me for who I am and even wanted to know me more despite who I am." Sam slowly calmed down and took the tissue, wiping her eyes dry.

Martha continued to glare at Sky from behind the counter and just sighed, she seemed to somewhat understood the situation.

"Alright, we'll speak later but it's probably best to leave, the customers are looking a bit unnerved." The waitress then waved Sky over whispered at the two.

"Kay, time to go you two"

"Okay." Sky whispered.

Sky paid for the bill and escorted Sam out the café and took her to a bench in the nearby park, the two sat in an awkward silence for a moment until Sam began giggling and started laughing out loud, crossing her arms around her stomach before calming down enough to look at Sky.

"Oh my, Martha was not happy, did you see her face?" She laughed, wiping her eyes.

"She scared me! I honestly thought I was gonna die, well I would've if that went on any longer…" Sky said, letting out a huge sigh, having got away.

"Well she's just looking out for me ya know? She can be a little too overprotective like a mother of sorts." Sam let out a sigh, looking up at the clear sky, smiling to herself.

"I can relate…" The engineer referring to Wave.

"Oh, are you alright now? You know after all I-"

"Yeah, I was kind of expecting to get turned down so don't worry about it, I had fun today and I gained myself a new friend, if I think of it like that then today has been a success." Sam said, while true, she sounded a little sad with a little tear forming around the one eye Sky could see.

"Are you sure about that?" Sky asking out of concern, she felt bad that she turned Sam down, but she had to, she wasn't ready for this sort of thing as well as not being into other girls, but she still felt bad nonetheless.

"I don't know right now but I guess in time I'll get around it." Sam showed a shallow yet forced smile, she was clearly having a hard time accepting this, she stood up and looked over to notice a small store a short distance away from the two.

"I'm gonna get us a drink, want anything?" She asked, Sky knew the real intention of going to the store, she needed to be alone for a moment.

"Just… water, I'll wait here."

"Okay, give me a few minutes" Sam ran off to the store with a smile, slowly disappearing, hiding her soon tear stricken face as she runs to the store.

While Sky sat on the bench, she felt awful for hurting Sam's feelings, thinking about how she could apologise but she quickly exhausted her options.

Suddenly a little girl leaped onto Sky's arm out of nowhere, she had long blond hair and looked about 10 wearing a simple blue dress, she clung onto Sky's arm with a little giggle, freaking out the engineer but she didn't move, just yelped and looked down in surprise.

"Big sister!"

"S-Sister?" Sky blinked a few times and her eyes widened at the surprise nickname.

"Mhm, we went to the circus together, there was so many people there and it was so fun even though there was one naughty man who interrupted it though..." She smiled, leaning her head on Sky's arm.

Sky didn't think much of what she said first until she recalled the word "Circus" and remembered everything that happened in Bozu concerning the circus and Maven, her heart sinking and felt her body go cold for a moment though at the same time she could be mistaking it.

"Could it be?" She thought to herself, looking down at the child, noticing her eyes were of a dark purple that was slightly illuminating, like Maven's eyes.

"W-what do you mean? We never sent to a circus, I don't think we've even met…" She said, recalling that there has been no recent circus in Vale for the past few months.

"Have you forgotten already, we are sisters we should always remember the things we do together…riiiiight?" The child grinned widely, her eyes wide enough to freak out any sane person, her voice turning cold and almost sad.

"We were in a town, very recently, it was big and yet… you stole something from me, you stole my favourite person you know? I know she's here so when I grow up, I'll come find her and we'll be friends, yes?" The girl, crawled up to Sky's frozen face with the same creepy smile, looking directly into her eyes.

Sky didn't know what to do, it was Maven for sure, but he… or she was now a child and has somehow come back, Sky always hated hurting children, she had a natural big sister vibe when it comes to taking care of kids and could never bring herself to harming them, right now is the worst possible situation she could be in right now, no weapon, her throat became stuck so she couldn't call for help, not knowing how long Sam's going to be, she needed to get away somehow.

"Enough of the child's play big sister, you know why I've come to you, just to let you know I will stalk you to the ends of the earth, waiting to kill you so I can get my Mary's body back because you stand in the way, oh so much, while I'm useless right now, her whispers give me the will to struggle and oh… I'll struggle, big sister." Maven said, looking to be reaching for something, a knife? No, she wouldn't be able to get away with it, either way Sky couldn't move, she was too scared, she needed help, anything just anything to get this little girl away from her.

"Letica! What are you doing?!" A woman in a purple office work dress and long blond hair came and dragged the child away from Sky, her expression foul but looked at the mortified Sky with an apologetic face.

"I'm sorry about that, are you okay?" She asked, clearly the mother, Sky wanted to tell her that her child is no longer her own but there was no way she could say it.

The engineer just nodded and stayed still, her arm shaking.

"That's good, come on, we are going home." The mother dragged little Maven away, s(he) looked back one last time to smirk at Sky almost telling her "Watch your back"

Sam had returned with two bottles of water and looked down at the terrified engineer worried.

"Sky! Are you okay?! What did that kid do to you?"

Sky snapped back into reality, startled, budging away from Sam before coming to her senses.

"I-it's nothing, j-just one of those pranks children play you know?" She lied, her hands still shaking and a cold sweat dripping from her face.

"Is that the truth?"

Sky nodded.

"Is that so? Well anyway it was really nice meeting you." Sam smiled, she seemed to have noticed Sky was still shaking but thought it was best not to push her.

Sky definitely thought it's probably a good time to go home, she noticed her scroll buzzing in her handbag and took a look at it, seems Ray was calling her, the engineer just declined it and messaged her.

"yeah…I think I'll be heading back now, I'll talk then."

"I think I should head back now too, Martha finishes her shift soon, so I'll be walking back with her." Sam leaped up from the bench and smiled at Sky.

Sky stood up, giving a smile back, feeling satisfied with today despite the earlier incident.

"Well it's time I head back too so why don't I come with you, we both live at Beacon afterall." Sky also didn't want to be walking home alone after that confrontation with the possible Maven, she was too scared mainly.

"Oh yeah I didn't think of that, let's go."

The two girls returned to the café where they made their great escape from to see Martha standing outside, wearing a large sunhat and a black dress with a jewel belt and some black short heels, looking rather angry, directing it at Sky until Sam ran up and explained the situation and the outcome, causing Martha eyes to well up as she tightly hugged Sam, shooting a glare at Sky.

Sky felt threatened and just forced a smile it at least kept her mind off the event that happened in the park, they walked back to Beacon, sharing the things they did that day and talking about various things about what they've done while at Beacon and such before splitting off when they get to the dorms, Sam getting Sky's contact details before going their own ways.

When Sky walked into her dorm room, she was greeted by the rest of her team that seemed to have been waiting for her with grins pretty much piercing into her.

"So, tell me, how did it go?" Ray was the first to speak out, being the most interested.

"Well I turned her down, but we are staying friends." As Sky replied there was a moment of silence, everyone's eyes wide open, especially Ray's.

"Her?!"

"yes, her"

"Your date was a girl?!"

"Yes, it was a girl!"

"But she has a boy's name!"

"Sam is universal!"

"I didn't know that!"

The two screaming over their little exchange, Ray fell onto her bed in surprise, it was more she didn't expect it to be a girl.

"got a problem with that?" Sky put her hands on her hips and asked, glaring at the Idol.

"N-no… It was just unexpected really…" She truly has nothing against same sex couples, she was just surprised.

"is that so, anyway guys listen to me and don't freak out." Sky took a large sigh, taking a look at her teammates faces to see them look at her, curious to what she has to say.

"M-Maven's in Vale…" Was all she could say but it was enough to see everyone's jaws drop.

"Are you serious?!" Ray stepped forward and yelled, she didn't believe Sky and wanted confirmation.

"But he died, there's no way he is in Vale." Wave stated, quickly gaining his composure.

"But I'm honest, Maven came back as a little girl and found me in the park! Would I lie to you guys?"

"No but… We can't just believe that, we know for a fact that he died, we heard it." Claus said, thinking about going to see Gort regarding this.

"Sky… maybe the date made you hallucinate or something, come on, you've even been struggling to sleep." Ray said, she was clearly having a hard time believing any of this and wanted to dismiss the fact, her arm was shaking but she hid it from the others.

"Guys… you really don't believe me?" A little tear welled up in her eyes, she thought that if she told her team, they'd be able to suggest something but turns out not everyone will believe everything she says.

"I say go talk to Gort about it, he might know something." Claus suggested, taking a look outside the window.

"I… I guess…" Feeling defeated, the engineer went to grab a towel and a wash bag, feeling like a shower will be better for her to clear her head.

"Just so you know it's not that we don't believe, it's the fact we can't, someone transferring souls into another is just a myth, only mentioned in the book about the man with two souls, even if Maven was to have something like that, we still wouldn't be able to believe it." Wave said, trying to say something helpful.

"It's okay… I think I'll have a shower and head to bed early… I'll feel better in the morning." Sky said, while knowing that the date she had today was fun and something she'd never forget, now knowing that Maven can possibly transfer to other bodies and is roaming around Vale as a little girl that will soon target her scares her but she can't let it get to her, even though she is haunted by the experience in Bozu.

Though in truth, she's still terrified.

 **Say Hello to this surprise chapter after so long, reason is this website didn't allow me to upload for awhile due to a technical issue but it's here now, I'm actually focusing on writing on another RWBY team with Shun, leader of team STAR and son on Professor Gort, though for now hope you enjoyed the chapter!**


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